A Flower Among the Foxtails
by BlackRoseEden28
Summary: Fate, they say, is sometimes cruel, but it is always fair. This is especially true in the case of one of the sweetest and most bitersweet of all love stories...the tale of Tails and Cosmo, who are doomed to spend the rest of eternity apart from each other. Yet when the time comes for a little 'divine intervention', will Tails have the courage to conquer the past and bring her home?
1. Chapter 1

**Note: Since I don't own Sonic X (for obvious reasons- because if I did, Cosmo wouldn't have died and the ending would have been nothing but her and Tails) there's really no reason for a disclaimer, but since I have to give a disclaimer, I'll give one. *sigh***

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic X or any of the canon characters mentioned in this fanfiction. The only characters that are "mine" are two which will be introduced in the second half of this fanfic- and even then one of them really isn't mine...I'm just sort of borrowing him for the sake of the fanfic.**

 **Dedication: This is for a good friend who is leaving in a about two days and I'm going to really miss them...and when said person reads this, I want them to know that they inspired me to force my ADHD/ distracted behind down in a chair and write this fanfic for them...so you're welcome ;)**

 **But on a more serious note, I want to thank this person for being there when I just wanted to talk, and that I wish them all the best when they do leave.**

 ***coughs*...well, anyways, let's just get on with the story.**

 **Shall we?**

* * *

 **Title: A Flower Among the Foxtails**

 **Rating: T (for some violence)**

 **Pairing: Tails and Cosmo**

 **Summary: Read and find out...**

* * *

Whenever he opens his eyes in the morning, _she_ is the first thing he sees.

A soft, pre-dawn breeze wafts in through the open window, causing her velvet-soft petals to quiver slightly as he sits up, wiping sleep from his eyes with the back of his paw. He opens his mouth and yawns widely, small pinpricks of light flashing off the points of his fangs, reflecting the way the dew sparkles off the leaves wrapped around her unopened flowers. Pushing back the blankets with his feet, Miles "Tails" Prower rolls out of bed and pads over to the other side of the bed, the soft blue carpet underneath his paws taking away some of the morning chill.

"Wake up, Cosmo," he says to her as he walks around to her side of the bed, his voice soft and ever-so gentle. "It's dawn."

With infinite tenderness, he picks up a pot on the bedside table and places it upon the windowsill, angling her towards the horizon, where the sun is just beginning to peek up from behind the distant hills. This has become their daily ritual: waking up before the sun rises to watch the beautiful lights that come with dawn… something that he finds almost beautiful as her.

Almost, but not quite.

She is still the most beautiful thing to him, no matter how many dawns come or how many days pass.

And that is how it shall _always_ be.

…As the dim rays of the sun stretch towards them like thin, spindly fingers, does she begin to fully awaken. Turning his attention away from the upcoming sun, he watches in rapt enthrallment as slowly, petal by dew-kissed petal, she unfurls herself from her bed of soft soil, until a flower unlike any other emerges -ready to greet the sunshine with a smile.

This is enough to put a smile on his lips, and turning back to the open window, he watches with softened eyes as the sun finally peeks its head over the hills that stretch over the horizon, painting the sky like a canvas¾the soft pinks, vibrant oranges, and rich purples creating a auroral masterpiece that never cease to amaze.

Yet after the sun becomes too bright to look at, and the aurora has came and gone, does he turn away from the window and begin to get prepared for the day ahead of him. He's got a lot to work on, and if he's going to meet the deadline on some of the jobs pending, he's going to have to hurry. Quickly donning a pair of pristine gloves -that will no doubt end up blackened with oil and grease by the end of the day- and his pair of white-and-red sneakers, Tails scoops up the potted plant from the windowsill and holds her tightly to his chest as he scampers out of his room.

He skips the traditional walk down the stairs and instead opts to slide down the banister with a smile. However, before he reaches the baluster, he hops down on the step and continues on his way into the kitchen. He sets Cosmo down in a sunlit corner of the counter and moves on to cook himself breakfast, like he does every morning. His mind shuts itself off as he goes the motions of the morning routine, his entire body running as if its on autopilot. The only time he pauses is to check off the previous day on the calendar hanging on the side of his refrigerator…and stops, staring at the date circled in red, a mere week from today.

However, before he has the chance to dwell any further on it, the scent of burning bacon reaches his nostrils and Tails quickly whirls around in a last-ditch attempt to save the side dish from being burnt to a complete crisp. Thankfully, its only a little bit too crispy around the edges, but still edible. He loads it onto his plate, along with scrambled eggs and hash browns from the other pans on his stove top, and after sitting Cosmo in her place directly across from him at the table, sits down and begins to eat.

However, he can't help it as his eyes flicker to where the calendar is, the bright red circle immediately drawing his eye towards it, and it's suddenly much harder to actually taste the flavor of his food, much less swallow it down.

It had been nearly a year since the day Cosmo had given up her life to stop the leader of the Metarex, Dark Oak- who had turned out to be her father, Lucas- from destroying everything in the galaxy. She had fused herself with the Dark Planet, sacrificing her physical form and transforming into a beautiful tree in full bloom. This metamorphosis stage had ended up weakening the planet with her roots, and with the combined efforts of Shadow, Sonic, and the cannon that Tails had built…both had been completely obliterated.

All except for a tiny seed that had survived the blast.

Shadow had explained that he and Sonic had used the properties of Chaos Regeneration to keep this small part of Cosmo alive, but that the seed would forever remain in that state, trapped within its casing no matter what energy it was exposed to.

Yet to Tail's surprise, when they had finally returned to their world, he had found that the seed had already begun to germinate, despite not being planted to any soil or exposed to any water and sunlight.

That was when Tails had begun to believe that there was still a chance that Cosmo could be brought back. A vision of her had appeared to him after Sonic had handed him her seed, and she had whispered to the young fox that she wanted him to take care of it…that it was her child.

And he had. For every day since then, Tails had cared for the plant, making sure that it was always in good health and given everything a plant needed to thrive. When the flower had bloomed for the first time six month ago, he thoughts that his heart would explode out of his chest in pride. He was keeping his promise to Cosmo. He would watch over this small part of her that he had left, besides the memories he carried in his heart, and make sure that she was always well looked after. This simple act of caring for her flower managed to ease some of the pain and regret that he carried with him…but it was not enough to stop the nightmares that plagued him.

At first, the average of bad dreams a week was roughly one-to-two, but when the nightmares began to become more frequent, until it was an almost nightly occurrence. On top of that, there was also times that he could swear that he could see her standing just a little bit away from him, no matter where he went, staring at him with soft, tear-filled eyes and a sad smile. Yet when he tried to find her, she would be gone.

 _Hallucinations_ , everyone would whisper when he insisted that she was there, and why couldn't they see her when he so obviously could.

He moved away from the city after the fame following the Metarex invasion died down, unable to fully cope with the trauma of watching as Cosmo died, and of the possibility, minute as it was, that there was another way to save the galaxy without her sacrificing herself. Nightmares plagued his dreams, replaying the same horrific moment when he fired the cannon at the beautiful tree that Cosmo had become in order to stop the Metarex; when he would wake up, sweating and heart racing, he could swear that he could hear her voice calling out to him, and that was enough of a strain on his already fragile state to make him desperate enough to stop trying to sleep altogether.

So, after days of careful secrecy and hard work, his friends had decided that Tails needed some time away from things that would remind him of what had transpired in space, and had built this house for him, hoping that the quiet scenery and peaceful atmosphere would help to heal the emotional scars he carried. It was a beautiful, thoughtful gift on his friend's part, and he loved them for giving him a place to call his own, where he wouldn't have to deal with other's pitying looks when he passed by, or hear the whispers about him behind his back. _Yes, he was a hero,_ they said, _but the war had changed him. That the loss of one of their own_ -or as some had referred to her as 'that plant girl'- _had caused his mind to become unstable._

But she was not just _'that plant girl',_ he wanted to snap at them whenever he heard them talk about her like that. Her name was Cosmo, and she was a hero. Because of her sacrifice, the galaxy was safe once more, and they were alive to see another day.

They were alive…she was gone…and he was all alone once more.

Shaking his head to clear his mind of these negative thoughts, knowing that it will only bring anger and take him down the path strewn with dark emotions, something that he's fought against for the past few months in the wake of Cosmo's death. After a particular bad event in which he had nearly taken his own life to get ride of the pain that seemed to grow with every day that passed -in which Sonic had thankfully found him in time before Tails had gone through with it- he swore on Cosmo's flower that he would never do something like that again.

He was going to live for her sake. He owed her that much.

* * *

After breakfast is over and everything is put washed and put away, Tails gets ready to go to work. He places Cosmo on a ledge under the window, where she'll be able to enjoy the warmth of the sun, making sure to add water to the soil so that she won't be thirsty when the temperate goes up in the afternoon.

"I'll be back after work, okay Cosmo?" he tells her as he opens the door, though when he looks over his shoulder at the window, the entire blossom seems to bob its head, like she's agreeing with him. This brings a wry smile to the fox's lips and before he leaves gives her a cheery wave, wishing her a good day.

The words he longs to say hover just in reach, waiting for him to speak them, but no matter how much he wants to…he just can't bring himself to say them.

 _I love you, Cosmo._

It just doesn't feel like the right moment…not yet, anyways.

All he knows that when it is the right time to tell her, he'll know. And that's all that matters to him.

He closes the door behind him quietly and fires up his tails until they've got a good rotation going, producing a steady whirr, and then pushes up off the ground with a small hop. Angling his body in the direction of the hills, Tails begins his morning commute to his workshop. It's a bit farther than he would like, not wanting to be too far away from Cosmo in case of an emergency, but once he had seen just how big the interior of the building space was, he couldn't pass it up.

The fact that no one short of him knew about it was an added bonus as well.

He had found it after flying back from the city in one of the smaller planes he had designed and built, the cockpit and seat nearly filled to the brim with groceries. While looking down at some of the hills as he flew over, he had noticed that the grass that grew on one hill was just a shade lighter than the others around it. So he had gone to investigate, and it had eventually led to the discovery of a trapdoor built into the side of hill, neatly camouflaged and so cleverly concealed that at first Tails had missed it completely.

Yet persistence eventually paid off, and when the nine-year old fox had shimmied down a narrow ladder, the wood rotted with age, a feat that earned him a couple of splinters; after stumbling around the dark for a while, he finally hit upon a button jutting out of the wall. When he had pressed it, both apprehensive and excited to see what exactly was built under the hill, he had nearly been blinded by the high-power fluorescent lights that immediately came on. Blinking spots from his vision, he had waited for his eyesight to adjust to the sudden lights, but when he was finally able to look around, he felt his heart leap up in his throat.

He was standing in the biggest workshop he had ever seen.

It looked as if it had been abandoned for years, but how much dust was over the tables that lined the far wall, littered with mechanisms someone had just left behind. However, even with the furniture, the remaining space, Tails had estimated, would have easily fit the X Typhoon, the Blue Tornado, and Windstorm (the aforementioned plane), and _still_ have room for Tails to build other machines.

This place was massive. It was extraordinary.

It was _beautiful_.

So Tails had come to claim the workshop as his own, using the space as a storing place for his three aircrafts and as the place where he could work on both old and new projects. Since he and the others had returned, Tails had found himself asked countless times by neighbors, acquaintances, or even random strangers if he could take a look at whatever gadget or machine that they had, and if he had the time, would he fix it for them?

Of course, he would, for sometimes the things they brought in would provide a worthy challenge, and the genius inventor in his thrived at the chance to take a look at a machine's inner workings, tinker around a bit and fiddle with the mechanical components until at last, the device began to work as it should. This last part always brought a smile to his face when he was done; the machine functioning perfectly to the delight of the owner, their heartfelt thanks to him always making him feel a little better. They would offer to pay him and he would politely decline, but they would always insist that he had earned it for the wonderful work that he did, and that it just wouldn't feel right to them if they didn't give him some form of payment as compensation for his time. So he would take it with a bashful smile and the customer would leave happy, and he would be content for a little while before the melancholy would come back and eat at him.

But now, as the prevailing cloud of gloom and sorrow was eased somewhat as the days went by, Tails had begun to turn the small favors of fixing broken machines into the beginnings of a business. Now, if people needed something to be fixed, they would come to him while he was in the city, telling him about the problem with their broken-down gadgets and appliances, and if he wasn't too busy with some of the other requests, then he would accept. A grappling claw had been installed into the underbelly of the Windstorm, allowing him to carry nearly anything back to his workshop where he would be able to work on it in peace.

As he fell back into the usual swing of work, the grief that had built a thick wall around his heart began to ease marginally, and with every new job request that he took, he discovered that some small happiness could still be found in tinkering and fixing broken-down mechanisms.

The jobs that were his favorite, however, were when the object had some sort of sentimental value, such as an old clock that had once belonged to someone's family who was no longer alive, or even from friends of the client that had moved away. Some of the tales that Tails had heard from a number of his clients had him reaching for a tissue, and the knowledge that he was going to fix something that people loved dearly because it actually meant something to them always made him feel a little bit happier…and yet also sadder at the same time.

Because no matter how hard he tries to fix the hole in his life, he still feels as if there is a few cogs short of a fully-operational apparatus.

It's ironic really, that a mechanically-inclined genius knows how to fix nearly everything except himself.

 _A sort of poetic justice, don't you think?_

* * *

 _ **(Roughly nine and a half-hours later…)**_

Tails scoots back from his desk and stretches languidly, wincing slightly as his vertebrae give a few pops of disapproval, all in response for the hours he's been sitting there, hunched over the surface of his work table, working on the blueprints of a new machine he plans on building. He's already done with some of the job orders he gotten, and it will only take another couple of days or so to finish up the others, so he thought that he could make some headway on his machine's design.

According to Sonic, Dr. Eggman has been a little too quiet in the past few weeks, a sure sign that he's up to no good ¾if their previous battles were any indication¾ so Tails decided to work on something that would certainly put a sizable dent in the good doctor's plans for world domination. The device that Tails had in mind was one that would short out any mechanical device it was adhered to via the specific range of the electromagnetic field built into the device itself. No other machine would be affected by the device's effect except for the one it was attached to, making it very effective against the vast machines that Dr. Eggman loved to employ against the blue hedgehog -each that would inevitably and spectacularly fail in the end.

The good doctor is nothing if not persistent.

That's why Tails wants to build this device as soon as possible, so that he can give it to Sonic to use when Dr. Eggman does his move.

However, as others have said when he's worked for hours without a break, the work can always get done the next day. So, with a quick glance at the clock, Tails decides that he's a good stopping point in his work and that it'll be alright if he goes home.

(That, plus the fact that his stomach is rumbling quite insistently also factors into the equation quite a bit.)

After making sure that all his tools and diagrams are put away in their proper places and everything covered with white canvas tarps, Tails takes one last look around before going over to the ladder that leads up to the underground workshop -he made a new ladder out of sanded boards to replace the old one so he'd stop getting pieces of wood stuck in his gloves- and presses the button on the wall. Instantly, the lights go out, save for a singular light bulb that hangs from an overhead fixture to prevent it from being pitch black when Tails comes in or when he turns everything off at the end of working.

He scampers up the ladder and pushes open the trapdoor, used to the weight of it by now despite it being made out of heavy wood. As soon as he's out of the opening and the door is once again lowered back in place, Tails smooths down the blanket of grass to cover any evidence of the trapdoor ever being there before standing, dusting his gloves off with a satisfied smile.

Another work day done. Time to go back home.

With one last look to see if everything is as it should be, and that the door to his private workshop is completely camouflaged, he gives his nickname a whirl and hovers for a moment before angling his body up at the sky. Why he's able to fly has always boggled his mind, and for a time he hated that the extra tail he was born with made him the source of ridicule among some of his peers, but after he befriended Sonic, he discovered that something that made him different also made him special. And flying…well, flying always brings him a bit of happiness, even when things are at their darkest.

It is with this thought in mind that Tails takes off from the ground, heading in the direction of home and Cosmo. He can see the curve of the river that cuts a path through the grassy zone and angles his body a little further to the northeast, using the long channel of water as a directional marker to make sure he's on the right flight path home.

The river is the reason that he loves his little home his friends built for him. It's so peaceful there that he sometimes wishes that he would never have leave to go into the city, and would be content to live there for the rest of his life, working in his own workshop whenever he wants. Yes, the absence of his friends is sometimes hard to bear, when they live so far away…but he's far happier here, in his home by the river, with the foxtail grass growing along the water's edge, soft enough for him to lay down in a stare up at the clouds, daydreaming.

It is in thinking of his riverside haven that he nearly misses movement beneath him on the ground, but by some twist of fate, he does notice it, and looks down to see someone wandering mindlessly along a path between the thick outcropping of hills in that particular area.

Concerned that said person might be lost, Tails brow furrow and swiftly changes course, angling his body to come in for a landing. The closer he gets to the ground, however, his ears prick up at the sound of someone singing. It's a wordless tune, unlike one he's ever heard…but it still manages to send a chill down his spine, though he can't figure out why.

"Hey!" he calls as he sticks his landing perfectly, the grass muffling the sound of it to nearly a silent hush. Now that he's up close, the young fox can see that the person is wearing a soft cream-colored robe that skims the ground, the cowl pulled up over their head, preventing him from seeing anything else but the cloth. The song is also most definitely coming from this mysterious figure, though now the notes sound strained, and Tails can feel another shiver run through him.

The sound is unnerving and strange…but strangely compelling and familiar in a way that he cannot recognize.

"Are you lost? Do you need help?" Tails asks in a curious tone, though he's still a bit wary. After all, who knows if this is some kind of trick from Dr. Eggman in an attempt to capture him in order to use him as a hostage against Sonic. It's devious, yes, but as far as anyone's concerned, that's just the kind of sneaky, underhanded trick the rotund man would try and pull.

The person stops dead in their tracks and turns slightly, as if they are looking at Tails over their shoulder, though the hood still manages to cover their face from view. When he speaks, the person abruptly stops singing and a tense silence falls between the two of them.

Not quite knowing what to say -and yet knowing that he has to say _something_ \- he stretches out his hand, opening his mouth to speak, when all of a sudden, a visible tremor runs through the cloaked figure, and a voice comes from the empty place in the shadows of the cowl.

 _"…T-Tails…?"_ a soft, feminine voice asks in a slightly quavering voice; the long word laden with uncertainty and confusion, as if the person is trying to remember something but the recognition is hovering just out of their reach.

But to Tails, the voice is impossible to not recognize, and even more impossible to forget.

His hand freezes in midair and a shocked gasp whistles air down his throat, but it's as if his body has completely stopped working, unable to comprehend such things as breathing in oxygen in that split second. _Even his heart,_ he dimly thinks to himself, _has gone utterly silent in his chest, unbeating and motionless._

As another silence, one fraught of disbelief and heartache, comes over Tails and the mysterious figure (he can't even think her name, he's so afraid he's wrong), the clasp of the cloak suddenly comes undone, and the material slides down in the grass with a soft, almost inaudible swish.

And it is there, standing in that narrow valley, the two of them come face to face…and she looks exactly as he remembers her.

She still wears the dress made from soft white flower petals, its hem tipped with green, a few shades lighter than the green bolero the same color as her bob-cut hair, the edges of the sleeves trimmed with gold. A red gem shimmers brightly in the center of her chest, matching the tightly closed buds on the side of her head, each enclosed with bright, verdant leaves. White stockings adorn her slender legs, with a pair of green-and-gold flats on her feet. Her eyes, a shimmering cerulean blue, still manage to captivate him, like they did the first time he had set eyes on her.

So he simply stands there, dumbfounded, unable to quite believe his eyes and yet unable to look away at the same time as she opens her mouth and begins to sing that same haunting melody from before.

T-this…this is… _ **impossible.**_

Yet the longer he stands there, mouth agape, it's as if the world has suddenly turned on it's head and become a place were up is down and right is left, for his mind can find no possible explanation or rational scenario where it truly is the girl he loves in front of him.

"C-Cosmo?" he whispers in disbelief, not daring to blink, or even breathe…scared that if he does, this vision of her will disappear with it.

Though when she nods, his heart feels like its being squeezed too tightly while his lungs burn for air. He opens his mouth to speak, to ask her questions of what and why and how, but before he is able to, she beats him to the punch.

 _"So much to tell you/And most of all goodbye,"_ she sings softly, pressing her hands to her chest as her voice resonates from every direction, from every hill, from every blade of grass. _"But I know that you can't hear me anymore,"_ she continues, but when Tails takes a shaky step towards her, she lifts her head and opens her eyes, revealing the sapphire color of her irises…as well as the tears that dance along her lashes.

Tears fill his own eyes at the realization that it really is Cosmo in front of him, and throwing all caution and reasoning to the wind, begins to sprint towards the girl he loves with all his heart, calling her name over and over in-between the broken sobs of relief. _She's here she's back she's right in front of me…_

Yet she lowers her hands and turns away from him as he runs over the grassy field, beginning to walk up one of the hills, not stopping despite the numerous times that Tails calls out for her.

Though if Tails dared to look past her sudden reappearance and his own mind-consuming joy, the young fox cub would have noticed that she was not walking so much as floating about two inches off the ground, and that she was slightly see-through, like a ghost or perhaps a mirage would be…

…or perhaps an afterimage.

But none of these facts even once cross his mind as he runs towards the girl he believes with his heart is his Cosmo, returned to life once more. All he knows is that no matter what, he has to catch up with her. Even as she disappears over the ridge of the hill she had climbed at the same time that Tails reaches the bottom of the slope, the sound of her voice still manages to carry, guiding him forward.

 _"It's so loud inside my head/ With words that I should have said/ And as I drown in my regrets/ I can't take back the words I never said…"_

"Cosmo, wait for me! Don't go! Please Cosmo, it's me, Tails!"

 _"I never said…/ I can't take back the words I never said…"_

"COSMO!"

Yet when he pushes himself the feet up the side of the slope and onto the top of the hill, her name bursting from his throat in desperation, he cannot see Cosmo descending down the side of the grassy knoll, or waiting for him at the bottom of the slope.

He can't see Cosmo anywhere.

It's like she's…disappeared.

"N-no," Tails whispers disbelievingly at the thought of her slipping through his fingers and leaving him alone once more, or being just a phantasm makes his heart break along an invisible fissure all over again. _It can't be…It just isn't right…I **saw** her…she was right here…,_ he thinks to himself as he looks all around in denial, desperately searching for a sign that she's still out there among the hills, just hidden. He holds on to this irrational thought with every single fiber of his being, hoping down to the very core of his being that he's right… but when he can't even hear the sound of her voice out there among the hills, like before, does he realize what she was.

A tempting image. An impossible wish. A dream that will never come true.

An illusion. A phantasm. A _hallucination._

He takes a shaky step forward, shaking his head in acute denial despite every piece of evidence presented, and somehow trips over his own feet, sending him rolling down the side of the hill like the proverbial Jack in the nursery rhyme. He cries out with every bounce of his body against the hard ground as the world swirls together into an indistinct mass of green and brown, making him so dizzy until he's forced to close his eyes and wait for this motion-induced nightmare to be over.

When he finally rolls to a stop at the bottom of the hill, sick to his stomach, he simply lies on his stomach without moving, the tears making tracks down his gold-brown fur as the sobs wrack his body. He's too overwhelmed by the knowledge that the Cosmo he saw was not truly his Cosmo; too overcome with grief to even think about anything else but his own heartbreaking anguish.

Instead, he simply lies there, surrendering his will to move or roll over onto his side as he sobs bitterly, brokenly _…hopelessly_. Every tear that he had stored up since Cosmo died came flooding out of him in wave after wave of heartbreaking anguish, until at when the last of his tears falls, he feels as if his soul is empty of every emotion but a grief so devastating that it scares him.

Yet not even this fear is enough to force him into getting back on his feet and begin the staggering journey back to his little home next to the river. Rather, he resigns himself to his own heartache and rolls over onto his side to curl up in a fetal position, feeling his eyes close as the last of his strength gives out and blessed oblivion comes, sweeping all the thoughts from his mind and swallowing him up into a dark, dreamless void.

A place so dark and deep that at one time he feared of slipping into forever and never waking up…but now he welcomes it willingly, without fear, as if it were an old friend welcoming him.

And with this last thought, Tails slips into a sweet, hollow abyss of nothingness, torn between the comfort of knowing the dark will allow him to forget everything and just rest… and the slowly wavering desire to live.

* * *

 _ **(End of Part 1)**_

* * *

 _ **So, that's it for the first half of this two-shot story, and I hope that those who read it enjoy it (or hate me because I left it on a sad cliffhanger), but please, leave comments and/or constructive criticisms at your leisure. Just no flames, or I swear I will put them back in my catapult and launch them back at the sender...so arsonists beware. :)**_

 _ **See you readers in part two of 'A Flower Among the Foxtails'!**_

 _ **-BlackRoseEden28**_


	2. Chapter 2

**A Flower Among the Foxtails (Continued)**

* * *

When he wakes up for the second time that day, the sun has already set over the horizon, and his entire body is cramped and sore from lying down on the ground. Wincing, Tails manages to sit up, brushing blades of grass and small clods of dirt out from his yellow-brown fur…though he's far more concerned with how dark the sky's become. He doesn't know how long he's was lying unconscious in the grass, but the last time he had checked his clock, it had only been about two-thirty in the afternoon.

Now it is way past sundown.

Shakily, Tails rises to his feet, feeling as if all the energy has been completely drained from his body. His limbs feel like overcooked spaghetti noodles, he's extremely nauseous, his ears feel like they've been stuffed with cotton, and his vision swims dangerously as he begins to walk up the side of the hill that he took an unexpected tumble down, taking each step carefully in case he feels the urge to be sick. He manages to take a couple of steps up the slope of the hills before his stomach rolls in dissent at the motion, slow as it is, and he's forced to drop to his knees again, gasping and heaving, like he's about to throw up, but when he eventually does, only acid comes up. Wiping his mouth with the back of his glove and flinching at the disgusting taste of his stomach acid burning his esophagus, he tries to dredge up a little bit of salvia to spit, hoping to remove the sordid flavor from his palette.

Wincing as the scent of his recent upheaval, Tails manages to once again rise to his feet, stepping over the pile of puke as he tries to walk back up the slope of the hill in front of him. The going is slow and halting, but the nausea that he felt earlier has eased marginally, reducing the feeling to an uncomfortable pitching of his stomach instead of the paralyzing urge to be sick. Despite the queasiness, he does manage to make it to the peak of the hill, and upon looking around, manages to see the river on the horizon.

Well, at least he'll be able to find his way home from here.

However, when he attempts to fly, his earlier motion sickness comes back with a startling vengeance, causing him to double over and retch, but nothing comes out.

 _Well, it looks like flying's out…_

Sighing in disappointment, Tails decides that the best thing to do is walk off the nausea and wait until it passes completely before attempting to fly again. If he doesn't, he could really end up hurting himself, and without anyone around to help him get to a doctor, the consequences could be extremely detrimental to his health, or even fatal. So as long as the queasiness persists, it looks as he's going to be taking a very long stroll.

 _What on earth could possibly go wrong next?_ Tails thinks to himself as he starts walking down the side of the hill, heading towards the direction that he spotted the river…only to stop dead in his tracks when the overhead clouds, thick, dark, and heavy with moisture -that he didn't even look up to see- finally decide to break open, spilling raindrops down upon the unsuspecting kitsune.

The kitsune without a coat.

With another long suffering sigh, Tails lets his ears and nicknames droop down and starts walking through the rain, his shoulders stooped and bent as the full emotional impact of what happened earlier that day -as well as what was happening at the moment- crashing over him like a tidal wave and riptide combined…with no idea how to break the current's hold…or how far away the shoreline was for him to be back on dry land.

 _I just want to go home…_ Tails tells himself desolately as he begins to trudge in the direction of his home, the rain steadily soaking his fur and the heartache rapidly eating at his heart and soul.

* * *

Yet getting home is proving to be an extremely difficult challenge in itself.

The light rain that had begun when Tails had started walking has now become a torrential deluge that is nearly impossible to see through; the winds have also picked up speed and instead of the gentle breezes he's come to know for as long as he's lived here, comes a raging windstorm that buffets him, tossing him left and right, nearly yanking him up off the ground as times, raging and shrieking like a banshee in the throes of her deafening, discordant death-song.

The sun has also gone done down over the horizon, leaving Tails wandering helplessly in the clutches of the dark. The rain is so thick that he can't even see the outline of the river anymore, and he realizes that unless he stumbled along the riverbank and tumbled into the water, he's not going to be able to navigate his way through the darkness without a light and find his way to the waterway.

And if he can't find his way to the river…he's not going to be able to find his way home.

The thought of being lost in the storm, unable to get back to the warmth of a fire to dry his soaked fur and the comforting presence Cosmo's _-which was most definitely not that apparition from before, he thinks to himself with bitter anguish-_ flower brings to him, like refined oil poured upon the squeaky hinges that hold his rusted and tarnished heart together.

He stumbles as the wind snarls in his ears, flattened against the force of the gale, his gloved hand shielding his eyes in an attempt to block out the droplets of rain that make it impossible to see anything past the end of his nose. Oh, how he wishes the rain would just stop, even for a moment, so that he'd be able to find his way home. But with how hard it's pouring around him, the depressing thought that he's going to wander around in the storm until his body gives up from sheer exhaustion or a bolt of lightning comes down in a freak accident and strikes him dead weighing him down; making his movements sluggish and his senses dull.

And then he hears something strange.

 _"Miles Prower."_

He turns around in surprise, sure that he heard someone say his name, but over the sound of the wind roaring in his ears, it seems very unlikely. Shielding his eyes with his paw, he struggles to see through the rain pouring down around him, to find his way in the dark of the storm. He thinks of the lantern he built hanging in the window, set to turn on when the sun goes down, illuminating the shadowy silhouette of Cosmo in the windowsill as a beacon for him to find his way home -he hangs it up every day just in case he loses track of time inside his workshop and returned home well after sunset, something that he's done on more than one occasion when he's been super absorbed in a project.

 _"Miles Prower. You must listen to me. Can you hear my voice?"_

The voice grows stronger as the storm rages around the lost two-tailed fox, the wind doing its best to blow him off course while the rain batters him from all directions, permeating his fur until he's shivering and soaking wet. He opens his mouth to speak, in an attempt to call out to this mysterious person, but the shrieking wind tears the words from his throat before he can speak them, scattering them to the dark thunder clouds above him, only to be torn apart by the violently vicious flashes of lightning that streak from sky to earth.

It's almost as if nature is trying to keep him from answering or calling out to the voice, urging him to give in to the cold and just lie down and accept the hopelessness of the situation. _He is never going to find his way home through this storm…he is going to die alone, with no one by his side as the cold and pain fades away…_

 _…he is going to see Cosmo again…_

A small, tired smile forms on his lips at the thought, and for the briefest of seconds he imagines what it would be like just to give up. To just lie down in the wet grass, close his eyes, and allow his mind to sink into oblivion. It wouldn't take long for hypothermia to set in, with how cold he is and how much his body is shivering, and the thought that everything would just stop is oh so tempting.

 _"You cannot give in! Listen to me!"_ the voice berates him as he stops moving, his eyelids beginning to droop with exhaustion. He hasn't slept for days in an attempt to keep himself busy, and it's beginning to take its toll on his strength. _"What would **Cosmo** say if she saw you like this?!"_

And just like that, the spell is broken.

As soon as he hears her name, it's as if the haze that had begun to drop over his eyes and steal his strength is suddenly flung away, making everything come back into crystal-clear focus. What was he doing?! How could he think about giving up and dying when he still had hope that he would see her again?

It is unforgivable. It is inexcusable.

It was exactly what he needed to find the strength to continue on living.

"Who are you!" he cries out, fighting to be heard against the squalling winds that threaten to topple him. "Please, answer me! Where are you?"

 _"I can lead you through the storm, but I need you to stretch out and take my hand before the storm takes us both. Can you do this for me?"_

"I-I can try," he replies, blinking rapidly to keep the water out of his eyes and still be able to see through the torrent of rain coming down around him. With each step he takes in the direction that he is able to hear the mysterious voice, the wind buffets him furiously, attempting to knock him back and keep him from advancing. However, the voice does not give up, encouraging him to continue on, that he is almost there- and most importantly, to not give up.

But the thought of doing something so cowardly repulses him now.

He was not going to give up. He was going home, no matter what.

 _"I'm right in front of you! Reach out and take my hand! You must do it now!"_ the voice cries over the peal of thunder that causes the sky to rumble dangerously, and when a flash of bluish-white lightning zips illuminates everything for a split second, Tails is sure that he is able to catch the faintest glimpse of someone standing just a few feet in front of him before the storm reduces everything back to shadows.

Squeezing his eyes shut, he stumbles forward blindly, his paw outstretched in the hope that the person is real and not just an illusion giving him a false sense of reassurance.

…But when a hand clasps his tightly, his heart leaps in his chest.

It isn't an phantasm or a figment of his imagination. They're real… he is not alone out here in the storm.

He is going to be alright.

"Hang on tightly!" the voice commands him as the thunder roars directly overhead, as if the storm is outraged that the two people lost in the dark had managed to find each other despite the other elements desperate to keep them from reaching each other. "Don't open your eyes, and whatever you do, don't let go of my hand!"

Before he has the chance to open his mouth to reply, the person begins to walk, and Tails has no choice but to follow behind. Yet even with the two of them holding hands like this makes the journey no less staggering, for the wind seems to redouble its efforts to blow them off course, shrieking and cursing at the two of them as the mysterious person leads the two-tailed fox in what he hopes is the right direction, but never once does this individual deviate from the unknown path that they lead Tails over.

They travel mostly in silence, Tails mostly concentrating on keeping his footing while walking with his eyes closed, and his guide helping him keep his balance when he stumbles, keeping up a persistent reminder of the earlier warning to keep his eyes closed no matter what.

Though it does not make sense to him, there is a subtle edge of fear in the other's voice that he cannot ignore, so he simply keeps his opinions to himself and does as they say without objection.

Because as hard as he tries to ignore it, it's almost as if he can _feel_ that something is not right in the storm raging around him, and that knowledge is enough for him to believe that the person is indeed trying to protect him, for whatever reason that may be.

"We're almost there! Just a little bit further and we'll be out of their range of fire!"

 _…Range of fire? Were they are on a battlefield?_

Unable to contain his curiosity any longer, Tails manages to open one eye despite the rainwater running down his face, tilting his face up to look at the sky. At first, he doesn't see anything, just a dense blanket of ash-grey thunderclouds, but just as he's about to look away, he sees something shadowy and dark flit across the surface of one of the lower hanging clouds.

Though Tails doesn't recognize what the shapes are from this distance, the sight of more shadowy figures sends a shiver down his spine.

Whatever those things are, he's sure that he does not want to run into them.

However, before he can speak up and ask the other person what's hiding among the clouds, a small pinprick of light catches his attention and distracts him. Tearing his gaze away from the sky, he lowers his head and feels his heart thump hard in his chest at the sight of a small glow in the distance that he can instantly recognize.

Yet on the heels of the relief he feels at the sight of the lantern he placed in his window to guide him back comes raw terror when one of the lightning strikes a little too close for it to be random chance. He yelps and leaps out of the way, his heart beating a mile a minute, for now it's all too clear that whatever is following him and the mysterious person, they truly means to hurt them.

Their careful pace now forgotten, the two of them drop the other's hand and begin to run towards the direction of the lone light amidst the darkness. Though he wants to, Tails doesn't dare use his namesakes and take to the air, afraid that it will make him an easier target due to his inability to maneuver properly, especially when he can't see what is attacking him from behind. The lightning strikes begin to come more and more frequently, missing him by inches and yet still managing to singe the tips of his fur.

They run as fast they can to outrun their assailants in the clouds, racing across the landscape that slowly gives way to a flat plain the size of a football field- while it makes running easier and there's less chance of tripping or stumbling, there's also less cover for them to take against the lightning.

His heart pounds in his chest as the distance between him and his home grows shorter and shorter, and yet with each breath he feels as if his chest is going to burst. At one point black dots swim in front of his eyes, but he forces himself to keep moving, afraid that if he slows down even a little he will be hit by the lightning and end up as fox barbeque for those creatures to feast upon. His fellow runner continues to encourage him when he can finally make out the contours of his house, like the roof and windows, the sight of Cosmo in the window giving him the extra verve that he needs to push through the cramping he can feel in his legs and the frantic pounding of his heart.

However, just as the two of them are feet away from the door, Tails catches a movement from out of the corner of his eye; when he turns his head to look at it, he's stunned to see one of the shadowy figures leap down from the cover of clouds and land on the grass, aiming what looks like a mechanical crossbow in their direction. But instead of an arrow loaded into the groove of the weapon, and nocked back like a normal crossbow would, a long glass tube is fitting into the curve of the bow.

Upon recognizing it's contents as the source of the lightning bolts aimed at them from the sky, the frightened fox opens his mouth to shout out a warning…but the words get stuck in his throat, preventing him from calling out in time.

Not that it would have mattered.

The front door is suddenly flung open with enough force for it to bang against the side of the house, with a second silhouette filling the doorway for the briefest second before it crouches and then leaps directly at Tails. The fox cub yips and nearly dives forward to avoid being struck by this new unidentified figure, but the being flies over him with ease, tumbling like a trained acrobat when it uses the momentum of its spring to tuck into a combat roll before leaping back to their feet, directly in front of the shadow-being armed with a lightning-loaded crossbow.

When Tails is finally reaches the threshold of his home does he allow himself to look back…and when he does, he freezes.

At the exact same moment, the new person pulls from the holsters at their waist twin black, bladeless hilts, swinging them at the storm-creature faster than Tail's eyes could follow. In the blink of an eye and a flick of their wrist, curving blades made purely from energy constructs burst free from the confines of the hilt, making these weapons all the more impressive. The rain sizzles and steams where it comes into contact with these mysterious swords, but in the hands of their wielder, they are almost as scary as they are memorable.

The first strike goes to the mysterious assailant, who dodges under the shadow-being's attempt to bash them over the head with the crossbow, who retaliates by skewering the firearm directly through the middle with an upward thrust before delivering a second slash that makes the creature drop their weapon to avoid being cut in two by the dual swords.

However, before the creature has a chance to recover its bow, the shadowy fighter pitches it off the end of his blade, out towards the open fields; when the being made of shadow and storm lunges for it single-mindedly, the figure makes its move, ducking underneath the venomous claws the beast brandishes with intent to kill, this silent figure deflects the talons with the edge of his first blade before surging forward with a well-placed thrust, burying his weapon into the creature's midsection. His blade lets off a flurry of golden sparks as the being lets out a scream of rage and pain, unfurling it's leathery wings in a last-ditch attempt to get away, but his opponent calmly twirls his other blade around his wrist and slices the tendons that connect its wings to the rotator cuff within the shoulder, rendering it flightless and unable to get away.

With a growl, the second figure yanks the weapon free from the creature's belly…before swiftly and mercifully delivering the deathblow.

As the storm-being fades away into nothing more but black ink and little sparks of lightning, the person tilts their head up to glare up at the sky, daring them to send another of their foot-soldiers down and face him.

But they don't dare…they know their level of skill all too well.

Many of their kind had fallen to those deadly golden blades the first time the two interlopers had dared to cross into their territories and steal their sacred treasure… and they could not risk losing anymore of their storm-legion this night trying to regain it with brute force alone. No, they would have to be cunning and more clever than they who made fools of them.

So with screams of fury and promises of retribution and terrible vengeance, most of the storm creatures unfurl their own wings and disappear up into the thick covering of clouds, where not even he can see them, while others hide silently in the sky, waiting for their chance to strike back against the gold bladed warrior and his thieving companion.

Oh yes, they would have their revenge…and soon.

Meanwhile, now in the safety of his own home, Tails stands in the doorway, sopping wet and shivering, staring out into the darkness of the sky, watching as those horrible creatures disappear into the storm clouds, clearly afraid of the being that had leapt the fox cub with the greatest of ease before taking out one of the storm-beings with cold, ruthless efficiency.

He shivers again, but this time, it's not from the cold.

Yet when the sound of coughing reaches his ears, he suddenly remembers that that fighter was not the only person out in the storm. There was one more…the one that risked their own life to lead him back home, even when those things attacked.

The one that brought him home to Cosmo.

He swiftly turns around as the hacking sound intensifies, ready to finally see the identity of the person who was in that storm with him…only to stop dead for the third time, dumbfounded. His mouth opens and shuts like a goldfish's, his eyes have rounded to the size of dinner plates, and he lifts a shaking hand to point a finger at the person who suddenly doubles over, coughing hard and wheezing.

"Y-y-you're-," Tails stammers out as the figure straights after a moment, leaning back against the wall as if needing the extra support to stay upright, one hand pressed against their chest as the coughing fit subsides.

"Y-y-you're a-a…a _Seedrian_!" he blurts out at last, after three failed attempts to get the words out in the correct order and not stuck in his throat, clogging his airway and making it hard for to him speak properly.

The person is indeed a Seedrian, if their appearance and attire was any indication to the Mobius citizen. She looks exceedingly similar to Cosmo in terms of clothing, but instead of a flower dress that stopped at Cosmo's knees, this female Seedrian's dress hits just above her ankles, just barely skimming the ground, and instead of the skirt being made up of individual petals, her skirt is a seamless and trumpet-shaped, though at its hem the edges flaring out in six petals at her feet. Her shoulders are bare from any cloth, allowing Tails to see that the skin that rises from her dress is milky-white and smooth, paler even than Cosmo, and taller as well.

Her coloring is also radically different from the other Seedrians that he's seen or met. Instead of the greens and whites that he's come to expect of the plant-like race, this girl doesn't look anything like them. For one thing, her dress is a soft pink color -like the inside of a shell- with an deeper hue of coral at the edge of her hem and along the bodice. The gem that rests directly in the center of her chest is silver, shimmering with an opalescent shimmer, which in turn matches the flower that blooms atop her head. Her hair is also a lighter shade of green, like the color of a ripe granny smith apple instead of an emerald, and tied in a strange style: unlike Cosmo, who had two buds on either side of her head, this girl has her leaves plaited to look like a one-sided braid, which then wraps around the base of her blooming ivory flower before falling down to rest against the left side of her chest.

Even her shoes, which Tails had thought were just regular flats, are different. Instead of the simple footwear that other Seedrians had worn, this particular one has a variation of those shoes¾in the same color as her gem and flower¾ just with ribbons that crisscross up her shins before disappearing up into the folds of her dress.

"Y-yes, I a-am," she says in a breathless, quavering sort of voice, and when she shivers, Tails realizes that like him, she's also drenched from the rain and could possibly be suffering from hypothermia. "D-do you t-think I c-could have a-a t-towel to dry m-myself o-off?"

Though he's still deeply surprised and concerned by her presence, his kind heart kicks in and nods emphatically, beginning to stagger into the inside of his home with his arms wrapped around his freezing body in order to find some warmth…though the length of time he spent standing in the rain has leeched away any semblance of body heat that he might have found, leaving him chilled to the bone.

However, but he can even take a single step up the stairs, the sound of footsteps from behind him makes the twin-tailed fox turn and look at the entryway of his home. A new figure comes into Tail's home, their heavy steps making the floor quiver underneath the young fox's feet, and he can't help but still in amazement.

Another fox closes the door behind him as he wipes the mud and grime from the bottom of his boots on the woolen doormat, as well shaking out droplets of water from his steely, bluish-grey colored fur. Upon closer inspection, the tips of this fox's fur are colored a very light silver in certain areas, and when stared at from a distance, the silver look like runic markings on this figure's shoulders, chest, forehead, legs, and back. By his height alone, Tails can automatically tell that this fox is older than he is, perhaps close to a full grown one of their species…though his large build makes the younger vulpine think that he's perhaps already a full-fledged adult.

But whatever he is, either teen or adult, he takes one look at the shivering forms of the fox and plant girl and then turns his attention back to Tails. "Were you keep your towels?" he asks in a low, guttural sounding voice, and though the other fox flinches at the sound, he somehow knows that this other fox doesn't mean to hurt him. Rather, he's trying to _help_ him and the other girl.

"T-they're in a closet u-upstairs," the younger male says through chattering teeth, and with terse nod, the steel-blue fox spins sharply on his heel and proceeds to the stairs, taking the wooden steps two at a time until he's out sight, but not out of hearing range. Tails can hear the sound of the hallways closets being opening and shut with a little more force than is necessary, but before he can say anything, movement in the corner in his eye stops him from saying anything. By the time his head is turned in the direction, the Seedrian girl's legs have given out beneath her and she slides down to the floor in a dead faint. The caramel-furred fox yelps and quickly catches hold of her forearm with one hand; the other going to her waist as he slowly lowers her to the ground.

"A-are you o-okay?"

The question is quite cliché, but under the circumstances, he has to ask it anyways, even if it's obvious that she's not fine at all. There is a ring of blue around her cerise lips that confirms Tails' suspicion that she too is suffering from the start of hypothermia- though it has rapidly accelerated by the fact that she is a plant- but a moment her eyelids flutter open and she lets out a soft groan.

Before he can say anything, however, the slate blue fox is already back from the upstairs errand and swiftly drops to his knee beside the slumped-over Seedrian, grasping her by her shoulders and giving her a gentle but firm shake. "Wake up," he commands her as he wraps one of the towels around her shoulders while another makes a makeshift cowl over her head; when he's done, he hands a towel to Tails so that he can also swathe himself in the soft material of the absorbent cloth

"Right, right, can't go to sleep yet…sleep is for the weak…" she mutters, and the bluish-grey fox chuckles.

"I'll go a fire going," he says to either Tails, or the girl, or perhaps both of them, and goes to the fireplace in the living room. After a good sized fire is roaring in the hearth, he comes back and scoops the Seedrian girl up, despite her complaints that she's better, that no, she doesn't want him to carry her, and yes, she can walk on her own. Tails follows after them and find that a chair has already been set for him in front of the fireplace. Touched, but still wary, he takes a seat next to Seedrian girl and puts his hands up to warm them, just like she does.

"Thank you for allowing us to come into your home, Miles," she says, and he gives a startled jerk. How on earth did she know his name?

"Everyone just calls me Tails, so you can if you want," he says in embarrassment, and the girl smiles kindly.

"Okay."

"Umm…can I ask you are? And what those things outside were."

The arctic fox on the other side of the Seedrian girl pipes up before the girl can say anything. "My name is Aconite, her name is Lilia, and those things that were chasing you were Inkubi."

"Really? That's your idea of an introduction _and_ an explination?"

"What's wrong with it?"

"…Never mind," the Seedrian girl says with a shake of her head, and then focuses her attention of Tails. "Ah, sorry about our bad manners. My name, as my companion told you, is Lilia, and as you already pointed out, I am a Seedrian. His name is Aconite and he's here from Mobius, and I'm so sorry that you got dragged into that little skirmish with those nasty Inkubi."

"They were after us, but you got caught in the crossfire," the fox adds, his brow furrowing. "Sorry about that."

"Why are those things after you?" Tails asks, curious to what these two could have done to bring that many creepy creatures coming after them.

"Nothing much. They just weren't happy that we snuck into their den and managed to get our hands on some of their devices made for portal transportation, plus some scrolls we've been looking to get out hands are. It nearly came to a massacre in their den, but we managed to get away. Nasty things, Inkubi. You're lucky that they were so focused on coming after us, because normally those little bastards like to go after anything that they think they can overpower, but run as soon as they feel threatened. They're cowards like that."

Tails shivers, thinking of how close he could have been to been dinner for those storm-creatures, or 'Inkubi', as the two of them had referred to them - _Lilia and Aconite,_ he reminds himself- and now he's sure more than ever that he does not want to come face to face with something so dangerous. He turns to ask Lilia more about the portal devices, for hearing about it has piqued his genius engineer mind, only to notice that the Seedrian girl is no longer paying attention to the conversation between the two kitsune, nor is she in her seat. Instead, she is standing over by the window sill, with a look of wide-eyed wonder on her face, as she reaches out and reverently picks up Cosmo's pot.

And Tails snaps.

"Don't touch her!" he shouts, leaping to his feet and running over to other Seedrian girl, swiping Cosmo from Lilia's hands as a terrifying fury rises up with him thinking of his Cosmo in anyone's hands other than his own, but close on the heels of this anger is a fear. A fear that something will happen to Cosmo if he lets anyone else near her, and he will lose the only thing that he has left his deceased Seedrian love.

Aconite lets out a warning growl and Tails flinches at the sound, but immediately after he forces himself to stand tall, glaring defiantly at the older fox with heated blue eyes as he hugs Cosmo closer to his chest. "That was rude," the steel-blue furred fox chastises him, eyes narrowing into thin slits in his annoyance. "You should apologize."

Tails opens his mouth to say something defiant in return, but Lilia quickly intervenes, lifting her palms up in supplication. "If anyone should apologize, it should be me Aconite," she tells the elder fox in a peaceable tone, "We did not come here to start a fight, after all."

Now she turns her attention to Tails and he can see that she does indeed look contrite for her actions. "Please forgive me Tails. I forgot how precious Cosmo is to you and did not ask you, as her guardian, if it was alright if I could hold her. You have my utmost apologies." She bows her head to him, and after a moment of staring at her blooming flower at the top of her plait, the anger fades away, leaving only sad protectiveness in its wake.

"T-that's okay. I'm s-sorry too," he admits, his voice filled with shame as his hands release the death grip they have on Cosmo. "I shouldn't have talked to you like that. It was really rude."

When his gaze flickers up to Aconite, the fox is no longer glaring at him, his expression once more solemn and yet amicable…and when he looks at Lilia, she's smiling serenely, with just a hint of shyness. "To be honest, I just wanted to see Cosmo for a moment, just to make sure this is the last of them."

"The last of w-what?"

She doesn't answer him, but simply answers his question with a question of her own. "Do you trust me not to hurt Cosmo, Tails?" When he nods, albeit hesitantly, she turns and pats the table's surface beside her. "Then I also need you to trust me when I say that if Aconite's and my own suspicions are correct, then we have finally found it at last. But I need your trust, and your cooperation, to allow me to test Cosmo just once." She pauses, and then stares at the twin-tailed fox dead in the eye. "Can you do this for me and Aconite, Tails?"

The silence that follows her question stretches out longer and longer the more Tails hesitates, his mind warring with his heart over what he should do.

However, in the end, he bobs his head in a slow, hesitant nod.

He doesn't know why he does it, but he slowly sets Cosmo down on the table and steps away -far enough to let Lilia take his place, but near enough if he needs to get Cosmo away from them, he can. The Seedrian girl smiles gently at him, as if understanding his hesitance to release the flower, but after a moment she turns back to the plant on the table, sinking gracefully into the chair so that she is level with the blossom. She reaches out and steadies her elbow on the table, her palm facing the ceiling, before leaning in slightly.

And then…she begins to sing, much like the false Cosmo did before.

Tail's body jerks at the sound, remembering what happened earlier that day, and he instantly tenses, waiting for something bad to happen…but when he listens to the melody Lilia is singing, really listening, it sounds different. Instead of discordant notes and a labored tune, her song sounds more like a lullaby being crooned… it sounds peaceful, warm _…loving._

 _"Lips, ripe as the berries in June/ Red the rose, red the rose/ Skin, pale as the light of the moon/ Gently as she goes,"_ Lilia sings, her voice feather-light and gentle, her turquoise eyes soft with emotion. Tails watches her in awestruck fascination as a calm like he's never known creeps over him, like gentle rivulets of water, but the longer he watches her, the more his grief seems to ebb.

Then, to his surprise, the plant begins to move.

When she sings the last line of the first stanza, the bloom quivers as if a small breeze has wafted through its petals, and in front of Tail's incredulous gaze, slowly turns its open face towards Lilia, as if the sound of her song was sunlight that Cosmo wants to drink in. Aconite, who stands beside Tails, makes a sound of slight surprise, as if he can't believe what he's seeing either.

"So this is the last one…how incredible," he growls low under his breath, but Lilia doesn't react to his words at all. Instead, her gaze is focused solely on Cosmo, and Tails doesn't know if he should watch the flower or the Seedrian girl, for each is like Aconite said…it is incredible.

 _"Eyes, blue as the sea and the sky/ Water flows, water flows/ Hearts, burning like fire in the night/ Gently as she goes…"_

When she begins the second stanza, another strange occurrence comes about, one that Tails nor Aconite expected. Lilia sings, her voice growing a bit in intensity, yet still keeping that delicate, peaceful tone, and to the two foxes' surprise, from the middle of Cosmo's stem begins to grow a vine. This tendril, about a thick as a coil of clay, stretches and lengthens while Lilia's song continues, growing until at last, it is able to wrap gently around the Seedrian's girl's fingers, then slithering down to encircle her wrist. Tails stands, wide-eyed at this, for something like this has never happened before.

While he noticed that sometimes when he hummed, the flower would sway gently, as if Cosmo were dancing to the tune, but never had it grown any more tendrils than the ones that were already present when she first bloomed. The fact that Lilia could coax a vine out of her stem with nothing more than a lullaby was mind-boggling, and for some reason, Tears felt his eyes fill with tears at the sight of the tendril wrapped around Lilia's wrist.

"Oh, sweetie, don't cry," the Seedrian girl begs him as she turns to see the beads of liquid that have gathered around his eyes, and she beckons him to come over to him with her free hand. At first he hesitates, not wanting to get to close and break whatever spell Lilia has cast, afraid that it might stop if takes even a step closer, but when Aconite gently and yet firmly nudges him forward, he obediently goes over to where Lilia sits.

Deftly, she pulls her hand free from Cosmo's entanglement without pulling at all on the vine; when it lets her go, she wraps her hand around Tail's wrist and forces him to extend his own arm out to the singular vine that moves, swaying and twisting, as if attempting to seek out Lilia's hand once more. However, when the tips of his fingers brush against the side of the vine, the thin tendril shivers and automatically changes course. It moves faster than it had for Lilia, swiftly slithering along Tail's hand and down his first, wrapping itself tightly around his forearm, his wrist, and his fingers.

Yet as the Cosmo's vine does this, a flash of white suddenly appears in front of Tail's vision, blinding him momentarily before the sound of someone calling his name echoes throughout not just his ears, but his entire body.

 _"Tails!"_

As soon as this voice reverberates throughout him, he suddenly wonders how he could have been fooled by that imposter in the fields. There is and will always be _one_ Cosmo. No other. So when his eyes close of their own accord, in his mind's eye he can see her standing there, smiling sweetly, with a blush on her cheeks and no tears in her eyes, he instantly knows that _this_ is the real Cosmo. He stretches out his hand to her and she takes it without hesitation. With a tug, he pulls her into his arms and wraps his arms around her, holding her tightly as the two of them bury their faces into the crook of the other's shoulder. A feeling of peace washes over him, a sense of _rightness,_ and for the briefest moment in time the two of them are reunited at long last.

…However, the image fades as quickly as it comes.

When he opens his eyes, his hand is lying on the tabletop, free of the vine, though he swears that he can still feel the imprint of it on his fur. His eyes flicker to Cosmo, but to his surprise, the extended tendril is missing, as if it had never been there in the first place. He doesn't fight the surprising burst of raw emotion that makes it way up his throat, but simply lets the sob building in his come up to pour out of his throat in longing and anguish. Lilia gently runs her hand up and down his back in a soothing manner, shush-shushing him when the dam breaks open and he allows himself to weep at the acute sense of loss he feels, clinging to the older Seedrian girl in a tight embrace that reminds her of a drowning man clinging to a piece of debris.

She doesn't waste another moment and instead scoops the two-tailed fox up into her arms, laying his head on her shoulder and holding him tightly the more he weeps and the louder his sobs build until she can feel the waves of his grief reverberating through her, and her heart aches for him.

Aconite too comes over and places his hand on the young fox kit's head, gently stroking the fur on his forehead and around his ears in reassurance.

"I m-miss her so m-much!"

"I know sweetie…I know…"

He cries and cries until the worst of the flood is over, and instead of sobs there are just little sniffles. Aconite hands him another towel and he blows his nose.

"I'm sorry," he says with a sniffle, his eyes still watering and filled with immeasurable pain.

"That's alright," Lilia reassures him gently, for neither she nor Aconite is a stranger to loss and the grief that comes with it. "Tears are like the pressure-value to the heart when the pain is sometimes too much to bear."

"Did y-you mean w-what y-you said before? Is t-there really a way t-to bring C-Cosmo back?" Tails stammers, his watering azure eyes flickering back and forth between Aconite and Lilia, and they can see the pure hopelessness there, as well as the fear that there is no way to bring Cosmo back. He's been told that so many times, and even believed it himself, that they can tell he's not far from slipping over the edge into the darkest pits of grief, anguish and sorrow. He needs to have hope again. That is the only thing that can save him.

"Oh Tails," Lilia murmurs softly as she looks at him, tears of concern welling up in ears as she leans forward and draws him back into an embrace she hopes will touch his closed-off, broken down heart. He's been holding everything in for so long that she knows it is going to be tough to get him to a point where the grief does not completely rule his every waking moment…but this is the mission she chose to embark upon with Aconite at her side, and she'll be damned if anything stops her from reuniting him with Cosmo. "Yes, there is. I promise."

"Y-you promise that you c-can help me?"

And though it is Lilia that Tails expects to answer him, it is instead Aconite to speak up.

"Yes, we can help you. We w _ill_ help you," the Arctic fox tells the younger kit, his dark blue eyes glittering with compassion, and tempered with strength. "You see, that is why the two of us have come. We are going to reunite you with Cosmo, Tails. No matter what."

* * *

In the days that follow the arrival -and later departure- of the pink-clad Seedrian girl and the steel-blue medic, Tails can hardly keep still. He can hardly eat or sleep, and when he does manage to get some rest, the slightest noise causes him to jolt back into wakefulness and leave him anxiously awaiting any sign that the Lilia and Aconite have returned to take him to wherever they need to go to bring Cosmo back. The only thing that remains constant in his life is the attention he pays Cosmo, giving her more water and sunlight while keeping her extremely close. Instead of placing her on the opposite table at night, she now takes up residence on the bedside table by him, right within touching distance. Before he goes to bed every night, he nuzzles her petals lovingly and allows the bittersweet emotion to pour through him…but he does not let it consume him.

Because now there is hope for him to draw upon. There is a way to bring back Cosmo back.

And he's not going to rest until that day comes.

The last four days have been the same as they usually are, save for the fact that Tails no longer leaves his house to go to his workshop. He wants to be there the moment when Aconite and Lilia come back. No matter what danger he has to face, or how long the journey takes, there is no turning back now that he has hope and determination to guide him through whatever it takes to bring her home.

Yet in the early morning of the fifth day comes a loud, loud-awaited knock, and Tails nearly spills his cereal all over his lap as he leaps to his feet and dashes over to the door. His hands are shaking so badly that it takes him a few times to get a hold of the doorknob, but after a few more tries and growl of vexation, he manages to flip the deadbolt and throw open the door. To his surprise, only Aconite stands there, wreathed in the gold light of the dawn. He's discarded his armor for a simple, unadorned flak jacket, and his weapons now are stored in two holsters around his upper thighs instead of his back.

"It's time," is all he says, but when Tails goes to pick up the backpack he stuffed a couple of days ago with everything he thought he'd need, the older fox shakes his head firmly. "You won't need any of that stuff where we're going, trust me. Lilia has stuff in reserve if the need arises, but she told me to tell you that the only thing you should bring is Cosmo. Anything else will just get in the way."

"Why are you alone? Isn't Lilia coming?" Tails asks as he sets the backpack back on the ground with a the slightest feeling of disappointment, but he shrugs it off, deciding to trust the other's words about the Seedrian girl having everything already handled. For once, he's not going to over think and calculate every possible outcome. This time, it will be left to fate.

"She's waiting for us at the temple," Aconite says simply as Tails goes over to retrieve Cosmo from her patch of sunlight by the window. He transplanted her into a pot that he built just a day or two ago in the event that they had to leave suddenly. The entire thing is designed out of titanium and silver, and Tails finds that he is proud of having built something like this in such a short time. To provide an extra degree of protection, he even built a cap to go over everything above the line of soil, and when the two pieces are put together, it sort of looks like a medicine capsule…or perhaps a thermos. Carefully, he slides his arms through the straps he also included so that he could carry her and could yet have use of his hands if the need arises.

After he is done, he notices that Aconite has disappeared from the doorway and with one last check to make sure the straps are tightly secured, Tails follows after the older fox with an expression of grim determination. _This is it._

He closes the door behind him, making sure that it's locked behind him before sliding his spare key under the rock by the porch like he always does when he's not going to be home for a long time. When this is done, he hears Aconite call for him, asking if he's ready to go yet. Calling back his reply, Tails swiftly hustles to where the other is standing just off the riverbank, a strange device cradled in his hand.

At first glance, it looks like a flat piece of copper, engraved with a spiral, but when Aconite tosses it about twenty feet away from where the two of them are standing, it doesn't fall to the ground. Instead, it hovers for a moment before beginning to tumble end over end in every direction, faster and faster until it looks like a solid sphere of copper…that promptly erupts to open an inter-dimensional portal.

A bright flash of light, like that of a camera, flares up as the device implodes in on itself, nearly blinding Tails, but after he rubs his eyes to get rid of the dark spots swimming in his vision, he looks up to see a vortex of swirling indigo light hovering a few inches off the ground. His inquisitive mind instantly leaps at the chance to study such a rare piece of transportation, but before he is able to, he notices that the edges are both expanding and contracting…and with every contraction it causes the portal to shrink in a little bit upon itself.

"We have to hurry. Without Lilia holding the edges open on the other side, that only gives us about a minute and half to get through this side of the portal and come out on the other side." Aconite explains as he scoops up Tails with one hand and tucks him under his arm before the younger fox has time to realize what he's doing. The steel-blue fox sprints forward with a speed that makes the wind whistle slightly in Tail's ears as they close the distance between them and the dimensional rift, and with a warning to "hang on" from Aconite, Tails grabs hold of the other's wrist as hard as he can, closing his eyes when Aconite jumps headfirst into the swirling energy field of the portal.

Violet lights flash before Tail's closed eyes and for a moment his entire sense of equilibrium is completely knocked off-kilter, until he doesn't know what direction is which anymore. It's disorienting, to say the least, but thankfully it last for only a few moments before the two of them come tumbling out the other side of the portal. Aconite manages to pull Tails to his chest, allowing him to take the brunt of the landing as they roll end over end.

When the two of them come to a halt, Tails immediately releases the other fox's arm and attempts to stagger away as his stomach heaves and pitches violently, causing him bend over and retch as pain flares at his temples and the feeling of vertigo washes over him. Nothing comes up, mercifully, but the nausea lingers stubbornly as he chokes and gags. He hears Aconite utter a low curse under his breath before the sound of his own less-than-steady footsteps comes closer. "That's it, just let it come, don't try to stop it," Aconite instructs him as the young fox continues to retch violently, his heavy hand awkwardly patting the other on the back. "Portal travel is always a bitch, even on the best of days. It completely screws with your brain's signals to your body, but unfortunately, it's really the only reliable means of jumping from one dimension to the next." There comes a pause as Tails starts to gag less and less, until finally it's stopped completely. The only thing that remains is the feeling of his temples pounding in time to heart beat, but he grits his teeth and forces himself to straighten and ignore the pain.

"I'm impressed," the Arctic fox says as he watches Tails bite down and stand up straight even though he must be hurting, cocking an eyebrow at the determined glint in the other's eye. "I don't any first-time portal jumpers have managed to recover that quickly from the sickness that comes with portal travel. They're usually sprawled out on the ground, or on their knees, puking up everything in their stomachs…I guess you're sure stronger than you look."

Tails manages to flash him a weak smile in thanks at the subtle admiration in the other's voice, but it still takes him a few minutes of simply standing still, hands braced on his knees, allowing the nausea to dissipate slowly. But eventually, it reaches a level of tolerability and Tails once more rises to his full height. "I think I'm alright now," he says in what he hopes is a strong, confident, voice, "Now where do we have to go from here?"

Aconite chuckles and with a cock of his head, indicates for Tails to turn around and see something. "Nowhere. We're already here at the temple."

Tails blinks in surprise and slowly spins on his heel to look at whatever has caught Aconite's eye, only to feel his mouth fall open in surprise, unable to believe his eyes.

It _is_ a temple.

A stone temple constructed in the middle of a massive jungle glade ringed with trees that grow higher than any Tails has ever seen. A silence stretches on as the young fox feels his mind struggling to keep with the sheer overload of information surging in through newly formed neurons.

 _Stones that look as ancient as Angels Islands' ruins…trees that are fifty feet tall…scents unlike any that he's ever smelled…_

"I know it's all overwhelming, but we need to get a move on. This way," Aconite interrupts Tail's train of thought as he begins to walk up the stone slabs that form the stairway into the temple, while Tails snaps out of his awestruck stupor, scrambling to keep up with the other's longer strides. Many of the steps bear the signs of weathering in their ancient surfaces, while others are marred by cracks or completely overgrown by the thick vines that seem to grow out of the very rocks themselves. But as Tails looks around, through the gaps of the thick stems, he is able to see symbols and runes carved into the stones, denoting a sort of antediluvian language that more than likely predates some of the earliest records of writing that he's come across. As they walk, he studies some of them, drawing up a mental sketchbook in his mind so that he can record and remember as many of them as he can; so that he will be able to perhaps study them a little bit more and decipher their meanings, if he is able. The prospective challenge of it makes his mind tingle with scholarly cravings, and he makes a mental note to ask Lilia if she would be willing to allow him to borrow her inter-dimensional key so that he would be able to come back to this undiscovered world.

 _Oh, the secrets this place must hold…_

Neither of them stops when they reach the top of the stairway, but simply continue their way through the curved archways that line the mouth of the temple, carven to look like full-grown trees, their stone branches outstretched towards the sky; heavy with stone leaves and flowers in full bloom. Vines also wrap around the stone columns that make up the trunks and along the branches, somehow making it look as if the tree is made of plant and stone in equal measure.

However, the only problem that Tails has with the beautiful shrine is the fact that when they enter, it's incredibly dim. Any light from outside is completely blocked by a rock outcropping that juts from the roof of the temple, preventing the light of the sun to come in and permeate the darkness. The only light within comes straight from torches mounted upon the walls of the corridor, rusted black with age and set every fifteen paces, as far as Tails can tell.

Yet they are like no torches he's ever seen.

Flames the color of jade flickers and writhe within the torches themselves, gilding everything in its incandescent halo the same color, including Tails and Aconite as they pass through the narrow corridor. The two-tailed fox steadfastly follows the other canine's lead when the stone pathways begin to twine and intersect, not wanting to get separated when he realizes just how massive the temple is on the inside… contrary to how much smaller it appeared on the outside.

 _Like an optical illusion…_

The two of them take so many turns that at one point Tails thinks they're walking back around in a circle, but when he begins to look for little signs to remember the pathway they're taking, just in case they really are lost, he's able to see the difference between each corridor by the symbols that are embedded within the torches' rims. When they first entered, the icons resembled three interlocking spirals; now they looked like unopened flower buds.

Finally recognizing a way to decipher the difference between the vastly similar corridors, Tails happily begins to watch the engravings upon the torches when they turn and enter into another hallway. Along the way, he is able to come across more symbols within the engravings: an intertwined design of both the sun and moon, as well as the shape of an oblong circle that greatly resembles the gem that Cosmo used to have in the center of her chest.

 _…Before it was shattered into a million pieces…_

When he sees the latter, his heart picks up speed and his mouth goes dry at the realization that this place could be the key to bringing her back to life, as well as the fact that this could very well be the birthplace of her entire race…a place that they had all though was long ago destroyed. And though none of the Seedrians had survived the war and the Metarex invasion that had eventually followed (though Lilia is clearly the exception to this), Tails is beginning to draw the conclusion that this is not just the only place where Cosmo can be brought back to life, but that it is also the place where the entire Seedrian race can be brought back from complete extinction.

One can only hope.

But that's exactly what Tails is filled with: hope. It's all he has left.

"We're almost there," Aconite assures him when the young fox asks him if they are close to the place Lilia mentioned, the Laminae Shrine, a room in the very center of the temple. "Perhaps a few more minutes, at most. She said that she tried to make sure that all the traps I disarmed were really safe to cross over before we got here, but the two of us thought it would be best to take the long way around just to make sure."

This makes sense to Tails, who nods mutely and continues to the white fox through the identical-looking halls, though every once and while he can see a discolored stone here and there carefully extracted from the stones pathway, set aside by the wall to keep them from tripping over it. Some of these traps still have nearly invisible threads coming out of them, carefully snipped by Aconite to avoid setting off the dangerous snares they were connected to. It's kind of scary thought to imagine one of these traps actually being live and accidentally stumbling into one without knowing exactly what was going to happen to you.

Tails shivers involuntarily just thinking about it.

However, before he can think any further on these rather macabre thoughts, he notices that their path has changed. Instead of walking in a straight line, the corridors have begun to subtly slope downwards, allowing the two canine-like creatures to descend further and further into the temple's depths. And like the pathway, there are several other noticeable differences about this route than from the others before. Instead of torches mounted upon the walls, dark green crystals jut out from in between the spaces between the stones, each glowing with an inner sort of luminescence that makes Tails think of fireflies and glass jars. Some shine brighter than others, like there are miniature stars captured within the geometrical internal structure, sending light refracting all over the walls and through the surrounding crystals until glimmering arcs of light appear over the walls, floor and ceiling of the corridor the two of them pass through. The next three corridors they traverse within are exceedingly similar to the first hallway of green-glass crystals, but there is indeed one noticeable difference: the tips of the crystals themselves are beginning to grow larger and sharper with each turn, until finally the spikes are so large that they stretch across the entire length of the hallway, the razor-sharp tips just barely touching the opposite wall in formation of a nearly impregnable barrier.

At Aconite's behest, Tails drops to his stomach and the two are forced to army-crawl their way underneath the crystals, avoiding the needle-sharp points of the oversized jewels. _Rouge would love this place,_ he thinks to himself the farther they slink down the passage on their bellies. _And Knuckles would be relieved that she would be attempting to steal something other than the Master Emerald._

 _…Then again, he probably waits for her to come back to Angel Island and try to steal the Chaos Emeralds from the temple so that he can both fight and flirt with her._

Tails snorts at the mental image, but soon regrets it when the action earns him a sharp prick in the side. He yelps, but Aconite is without sympathy on the matter, firmly telling Tails to keep his eyes out for the crystals' points. The younger fox accepts this with a meek chuckle and returns to focusing on getting through the corridor relatively unscathed, for unfortunately, unlike the other paths, this one through the crystals twists and twines, making the going slow and requiring strict mental focus to keep from being run through by the sharp spikes.

When at last they exit the thorny jewel maze, the two of them stop and stretch, joints popping in retaliation from being forced to huddle so low to the ground. They pause for only a minute, shaking green crystal dust and some shards out of their fur before Aconite continues walking at a relatively brisk pace, Tails hurrying to catch up with him.

"Last corridor," the older fox says as they take the right-most path at a cross-section of six other hallways, but Tails can't help but stare at the other walkways with a sudden realization:…they all make up the shape of a flower.

The sudden awareness of this fact makes a shiver go down Tail's spine, but before he can ask Aconite if it has anything to do with the Seedrians, the Arctic fox comes to a sudden halt and the honey hued cub almost runs smack into him. Thankfully, he manages to stop in time, and takes a step to the side to see what made the other stop dead in his tracks…only to find his mouth drop open once more.

Lilia waits patiently at the top of a series of steps leading up to a gigantic stone door engraved with more of the strange symbols carved on the exterior of the temple, and covered with the same thick vines, even though Tails is sure that he hasn't seen any of those strange tendrils growing anywhere in the other corridors. So how do they manage to grow here?

"Took the two of you long enough," the Seedrian girl teases the two of them with a playful smile when they walk up the steps to join her at the foot of the massive doors. "I thought you guys were caught in a booby trap and were waiting for me to come rescue you."

Her partner rolls his eyes at her words, but the smile hovering on his lips takes the sarcasm out of the action. "You didn't give a specification on how long we'd have to get here," he points out, using the hole in her logic against her, to which she just sighs and shakes her head before raising her hands in surrender.

"Alright fine. Point taken… _Colonel Critic_ ," she mutters under her breath, low enough that Aconite can't hear her, but Tails, who is standing right next to her, can. He chuckles at the pun she just made, though when the white fox's head snaps around Tails forces himself to look like he's serious instead of bursting into laughter like he wants.

"What?"

"Nothing, just talking to myself," Lilia says, smoothing over her little complaint with ease that makes Tails shake his head in amazement at how the Seedrian girl manages to make it seem like she didn't say anything…even as Aconite's brow wrinkles in mystification at her words. She controls her expression and turns to face Tails with a beatific smile. "How are you holding up Tails? Any lingering nausea from your first time using a rift?"

He shakes his head in response, but his gaze now travels to the doors sitting in front of them, gazing up at them at wonder. Like everything else about this temple, the sights he seen simply captivates him in a way he can't really explain, but if he tried, he could almost say that this place seemed… _familiar_. Like a safe haven he didn't even know existed until he was inside it.

 _It reminds him of Cosmo…_

"Is she inside there?" he asks, his voice nearly inaudible as the sound of his blood pumping in his veins begins to echo in his ears.

"Not yet," Lilia contradicts him gently, placing a hand on his shoulder, her turquoise eyes filled with serenity. "There is still a couple things that need to be done before we can bring Cosmo back to the physical plane. Inside that room are the tools that we will need for the ritual of mending what has been broken…but what happens after that…not even I am certain what will occur after the ceremony is completed. We shall just have to wait and see." She pauses for the briefest of seconds before continuing in that same calm voice. "Are you truly ready?"

"Yes. I am," he answers with hesitation, for a second even startling him by how quickly he replied to her question. "I'm a little scared, because I don't know what I'm going to have to do, or what I might have to face…but I also don't care what I have to do in order to get there…I'm going to get Cosmo back. "

Aconite catches Lilia's eye and his lips curl up in a satisfied smile, raising his brows in her direction, and she bites her lip to hold back her own proud smile. This is exactly what the two of them have been waiting for. The admission that he is strong enough to handle whatever happens, and the confidence to face it head on without being scared.

 _Once, he believed that he was weak, and that he was unable to be as strong and as courageous as his best friend and brother-in-arms, Sonic._

 _This is not the case any longer._

Lilia dips her head in approval and her eyes shimmer with happy relief. "Very well. Let us waste no more time with questions then." She twirls on her heel and walks over to the door, Aconite shadowing her movements silently. At the same time, the two of them place their hands upon the cool stone…and push open the doors of the innermost room within the temple.

 _The Laminae Shrine._

As the doors to the temple's inner sanctum give way under the combines efforts of the bluish-grey furred fox and the peach-clad Seedrian girl, Tails recalls his earlier thoughts about what this room would look like. The way he had imagined it, it would probably be a large, spacious room made from the same ancient stones that make up the rest of the temple, with a old, weathered altar in the center. The entire thing would either be lit by the green-flame filled torches from the earlier corridors, or perhaps even the illuminated-from-within crystals that he and Aconite had to pass through to get here.

This is the image he has of what he expects the room to look like, and when the doors swing open he finds himself leaning forward to see if he's right…only to feel his mouth drop open in shock yet again.

Instead of dull gray stones, the entire room as looks as if it has been hewn from iridescent glass. Like in his imaginings, there are indeed crystals that set around the room, but none of them hold any light within them. The real illumination for the shrine comes from a skylight in the center of the ceiling, where a thin beam of light comes down a narrow shaft that must stretch all the way up to the very top of the temple. The light then comes into contact with crystal directly underneath it, and it is by this massive mineral that allows the rest of the room to be lit in soft lighting.

Surrounding this crystal is a upraised circular dais with ten diamond grooves etched into its surface that match the beams of light that branch out across the top, making it look as if the carvings are filled with glowing liquid. And at the edge of each of the diamond's outermost point are ten stone basins filled with soil, the grooves of the dais continuing up their sides and over the rim to flow into the inner part of the stone bowls.

Awestruck by the appearance of the Laminae Shrine, which is vastly different than he ever imagined, he looks around the room, too mesmerized by how beautiful it is within such a sacred place. However, his eye continues to return to stare at the crystal and the intricately-cared dais, for there is something very familiar about the shape the lines seem to make. Each of the diamonds are symmetrical, and their innermost points all come to a fixed point at the center of the table, where the crystal is.

The first thing that comes to Tail's mind is a star…but then he realizes upon a flash of insight that he's wrong.

It's a _flower._

"Breathtaking, isn't it?" Lilia says as she and Aconite come up to flank either side of the two-tailed kitsune, their eyes filled with the same wonder than Tail's is sure is in his own eyes. "The first time I saw it, I thought I was just dreaming." She sighs happily and claps her hands in front of her, tilting her head slightly to side. "But I'm glad this place really does exist."

Aconite nods sagely in agreement, but Tails still has one question nagging at him in the back of his mind.

"Lilia?"

"Yes?"

"…What do we have to do?"

This time it is Aconite who answers, turning his head to look down at his fellow kitsune while the other has to tilt his head back to look up at him. "When the battle against the Metarex was done, you were told that the seed given to you was the only piece of Cosmo that survived, correct?" When Tails nods, his stomach twisting itself in guilty knots as the memory of that fateful day floods his inner eye. _Her sacrifice…his failure to save her…the sound of her voice asking him to take care of her child…_

"Well…that is not the entire truth."

His eyes widen as the meaning of the words sink in, because he doesn't really understand what Aconite means. How was that not the truth? Sonic himself had told Tails that the only part of Cosmo that remained in the aftermath of the battle, and he had believed him. So what does he mean?

"Yes, there was only one seed to survive, to come directly from Cosmo herself; that is the seed that you raised. But there were _others_ , other pods that, while not stemming from Cosmo directly when she completed her metamorphosis, were imbued with parts of her soul." The Arctic fox pauses for a moment to let Tails digest this newfound information, for this is a lot to take it. To think for so long that that he held on to the last piece of the girl he loves, only to find out there were others out there, and possibly in the hands of strangers. When he's sure that Tail's is ready, he continues, "These seeds were scattered all over the galaxy, on different plants, and no one learned of the existence…until Lilia."

Now Tails turns his head to look at the Seedrian girl, who had silently walked over to the dais while the two foxes were speaking, not wanting to disturb them. Stooping slightly, she pulls out a small bag made of purple linen, tied with a silver drawstring before walking back over to them. Without a word, she hands it to Tails, who shakily pulls apart of the edges…and his breath catches in his throat when he sees nine seeds identical to the one that Cosmo's flower had sprouted from in the bag.

 _…It's true…_

"That's when I went to Aconite and told him of what I had discovered about these missing seeds," Lilia says, picking up the story from where he stopped, "He immediately agreed to help me find the seeds that were lost among the stars, as well as the scroll that would tell us how to bring back a spirit caught among the planes of those who are neither truly living nor truly dead. It took us a full year to bring them together… and then when we realized that there was ten seeds, we knew that the last part of the spell included the flower that you had worked so hard to nurture."

 _…But how…?_

"B-but…I still don't understand how any of this tells us how the ritual works. What do we have to with the seeds?" he asks in confusion,

She gestures to the basin closet to him and smiles softly. "Well, the first step is to plant each of them…and the second step is to make them grow. Will you allow me to show you? " she asks…and after a hesitant pause, he finally nods his head.

When Lilia holds out her hand, he hands her the bag with Cosmo's seeds without a fuss, and then goes to remove the capsule containing Cosmo from his back, but she holds her hand. "You should have the honor of putting her in her proper place," she says softly, and he feels a wave of gratefulness towards the Seedrian girl for not taking her flower from him.

He and Aconite watch silently as one basin at a time, Lilia goes around to each of the ten places, burying the seeds deep within the soil with a knowledge of knowing exactly where each one should be placed, though to either of them, the seeds simply look all alike. When this is done, and the final basin, the one at the topmost point of the flower, remains empty, Lilia gestures for Tails to come over. Without a word, she helps him dig a hole big enough to transfer Cosmo from her capsule to the basin, and then steps back as he lifts her out of her soil tenderly and relocates her to her place in the circle.

Now, from the pocket of her dress that Tails didn't even know she had, she draws out a thin chain necklace with a multitude of charms _plinking_ as they bump into each other, each one a tiny vial filled with liquid in a variety of colors, save for two who merely look like water that is cloudy. Each has a small label on them, writing in runes that Tails is unable to decipher or recognize, but Lilia seems to know what each of them is. "Let us begin the ritual," she says in a solemn voice, taking one of the colorless vials off the chain first before handing the necklace to Tails reverently.

She goes to the basin to the right of where Cosmo's flower is -though from Aconite's point of view, it could be considered her left- and pulls out the small cork. "When you first encountered Cosmo, and she spoke to you about the dangers of the Metarex invasion, there was some doubt that what she said was true," Lilia says as she begins to steadily pour the liquid contents out into the soil. "Yet with each enemy faced and battle won, she became less of an acquaintance and more a trusted comrade, united against a common enemy.

"With this in mind, we call upon the essence of the white chrysanthemum to release the first of the _anima_ born from Cosmo's soul…the Spirit of Trust."

As she stops speaking, from the soil erupts a verdant green vine, with a bud rapidly swelling at its tip, growing at a rate that is almost incomprehensible, but after few more seconds pass, where there was only a closed bud before is now a beautiful white flower with a vast amount of small petals. Yet even more astonishing is that when the plant has reached full growth, an apparition appears over the flower. Tail's breath catches in his throat, for this strange, tiny phantasm looks like Cosmo, except that her dress is made of the same little petals that are on the flower, and matching the blooming florets on her head. She smiles at Tails for a brief moment before she turns into a small pinprick of light and shoots to the crystal in the center of the dais, disappearing within it.

There is no time to stand and gape at what has just transpired, for Lilia is already moving on the next basin, unclipping a yellow vial from the chain. Tails isn't really paying attention to what she says at first, too busy staring at the basin to watch when the plant comes up through the soil, but he does manage to heard the incantation at the end.

"With this in mind, we call upon the essence of the yellow rose to release the second of the _anima_ born from Cosmo's soul…the Spirit of Friendship."

Much of the ritual continues on the same way, with Lilia moving on the next basin, retelling some of the adventures they shared to tie in with the incantation, in which a new flower bursts up from the dark soil, each different than its predecessor. The spirits that appear look nearly identical to the flower that they spring from, and though they don't stay long, each one always looks at Tails before going to the crystal.

 _Iris for Courage…Dandelion for Loyalty…Snapdragon for Deception…Purple Hyacinth for Sorrow…Spider Lily for-_

 _Death._

This is the one hardest to bear, beside two anima that precede this one, for when she appears, she does not meet Tail's gaze, and there tears sliding down her cheeks before she too vanishes in a ball of light and goes into the crystal with the others. Tails swallows down the lump in his throat and moves on with Lilia, though he catches her looking at him with understanding.

There is only three to go in the circle: two of the seeds that have not sprouted, and Cosmo's flower.

 _Snowdrop for Hope…Pink Lotus for Rebirth…_

At last, they have come back full circle, and as they stand before the final basin, Lilia takes the final vial off the chain and hands it to Tails. "It's only fair for you to complete the circle," she says, "After all, this is the most important of them all."

And so Tails takes a step forward and she takes a step back, speaking the first of the final verse while he pulls the cork out of the vial.

"This is the last stop in the cycle, and while it does hold great importance for being the final step, this flower could not have grown without the help and guide of the others. There could have been no conclusion to the story without its sisters to pave the way for it to grow…for it depends on their strength to grow until it becomes one of the most powerful emotions in the world."

(…Pour out the liquid…)

"With this ever in our mind, we call upon the essence of the cosmo flower to release the tenth and final _anima_ of Cosmo's soul…the Spirit…of Love."

And when the spirit appears, tears flood his eyes, for it looks exactly like his beloved Cosmo, right down the last detail. She smiles at him shyly as she lifts hand and waves at him…before the others, she vanishes into the crystal in the center of the dais.

However, as soon as it is done, and all of the spirits have gathered in one place, the crystal begins to hum and pulse with an inner song that reverberates throughout all three of them. From within its facets, the lights of the spirits gather together and begin to spin in time with the melody that the crystal is emitting, and slowly they can see that they are beginning to take a different form. As the crystal's song rises up in a sharp crescendo, the narrow beam of sunlight coming from above widens inexplicably and bathes the crystal in strange crimson light.

"What's going on?" Tails ask Lilia as they quickly walk back to where Aconite stands, but before she can answer, from all around them comes a clap of thunder, then the floor rolls and pitches beneath them, and finally, a bolt of crimson light strikes in the center of the crystal, momentarily causing their vision to go completely red.

When it passes and they look at the center of the dais, it is not only Tail's mouth that drops open.

For the crystals have been rearranged in a the shape of a green glass throne etched with Cosmo's flowers…and a single ruby-colored gemstone floating about the seat.

They stare at it in shock, for nothing could have prepared them for something so incredible, but when the gemstone bobs gently over to Tails, both Aconite and Lilia step back. It must be him to claim her jewel, for it is he that wishes to bring her back from limbo, and none else can claim to care about her as much as he.

"You have to be the one to receive her gem," Aconite tells him, "She means it for you to have it, as it was from the beginning."

With these words, Tails hesitantly reaches up to cup the stone in his hands.

 _At last…_

As soon as his hands enclose around the gem, Cosmo's gem, the sound of mocking laughter fills the air, sending a chill skittering down Tail's spine. _**"I didn't think the three of you would have had the gall to actually try to bring back someone who has died, especially using an amateurish ritual one as the one fabricated for this exact purpose,"**_ the voice says snidely as Aconite and Lilia quickly form ranks around Tails, their eyes as hard as the crystals that make up the materialized throne in the center of the circle. _**"But I have to say that I'm somewhat pleased. I'd thought that the two of you would have never managed to escape the lair of the Inkubi with your souls intact, and that it was such a waste for such fine warriors as the likes of you two would perish at those beast's clawed hands."**_

The voice laughs again, and yet the sound is tainted with the sounds of anger and hatred. **_"For now I have the chance to destroy you myself…before I shatter the gem the three of you worked so hard to bring back together."_**

"Never! I'll never let you have Cosmo!" Tails screams back defiantly, but before any of them can do anything, the ground falls out from under them in the blink of an eye, leaving the three of them to plunge down into the bottomless darkness as the cackling of the mysterious voice resounds around them.

However, the darkness soon gives way to another room, this one even bigger from the Laminae Shrine, made completely from marble, with carved columns that act as supports to the ceiling. But as impressive as this room is, the giant that sits in front of them is a less than pleasant sight.

The fallen god is swollen and fat, cloaked in a black robe that covered him entirely from head to head, save for the opening where the three of them can see multiple eyes staring at them at the same time. _Like a six-eyed spider…_

This dark spirit chuckles at the glares he's receiving from the arctic wolf and the Seedrian girl. _**"Oh, don't look at me like that,"**_ he chides them mockingly, though there's a distinct edge of arrogance in his voice. _**"There is consequences for those who dare think they can cheat fate, and it is I who punishes the people who break the rules. It's a rather fun job, if I do say so myself. I always have the best time torturing the criminals before I kill them. You should feel honored!"**_

"You're insane," Lilia snaps, holding out her hand, and a green sphere forms over her palm, hovering for a moment before it elongates into the shape of a bow and drops into her waiting hand. The entire weapon is taller than she is, but by the way she stands, Tails knows that she knows how to use it…and probably well. "Now let us go before this turns into battle to the death, because I can promise you one thing. You _**won't**_ win against Aconite and I."

 _ **"Oh, such brave words coming from a meddling Seedrian interloper wielding a bow made from hazel. What are you going to do, try and purify me with it?"**_

"Do _**not**_. Insult. My Weapon."

 _ **"Your guard dog's weapon will be about as useful against me as your weapon is, little chit."**_

Aconite snarls low under his breath and leaps at the fallen god, intent on shoving his weapon so far into this cretin's brain he'll be lobotomized, when the dark spirit makes his move. Lifting its covered arms, the sleeves draping over the hands as well, from the shadows in the folds of the voluminous cloth flies out the entire legion of the Inkubi, leaving the blue-grey fox no choice but to fall back to where Lilia and Tails are, though fury bubbles just beneath the surface.

The bastards are the ones he and Lilia had believed they'd drove off.

Their weapons are instantly at the ready, waiting for the first of them to come, but surprisingly, they hold back and wait.

 _ **"Oh, and did I mention that they listen to my ever command, being as we're both creatures of the evilest things in the world. However, I think I'm the nicer of the two. I'm actually going to give you a choice: give up your weapons and surrender to your judgment, and I'll make your death swift and painless…or I'll let these delightful creatures play with you for a bit before I kill you in the slowest possible way."**_

"Go to hell you obese slug," Aconite spits at him.

 _ **"That's not very nice,"**_ the fallen god says, and now there's a distinct edge of anger in his voice, _**"And here I was, trying to give you a good, honest choice. Well, that card is now the table. We're going to play a little game now: it called You-Run-Around-While-I-Pick-You-Off-One-By-One. Let's start with the little one, shall WE!"**_

His voice, which was spoken normally, suddenly becomes a roar of rage, and out of the folds of his robes comes a vine made of shadows, darting towards Tails faster than either Aconite or Lilia can use their weapons against it. The kitsune cub stand still as it comes speeding toward him, with no means to defend himself and no time to get away. He's frozen, staring death in the face as the vine comes down, and he knows that there's no way to escape it. He's going to die.

 _And just when he got Cosmo back._

"TAILS!"

However, before the vine connects, the gem in his hands suddenly grows hot, nearly causing him to drop it as he waits for the killing blow…only to be surprised when a thick barrier of red energy forms around Tails, stopping the tendril dead in its tracks and causing it to burst into flame.

And it is in this moment that he recognizes Cosmo's spirit from within the gem he holds, feeling the waves of both anger and fierce protectiveness pulse and ebb around him.

 _ **"So…the crystal protects you…"** _ the voice of their assailant says in a thoughtful voice, as if this a new sort of occurrence for him, but if quickly goes away, replaced by sadistic glee. _**"But your friends have no such defense against me!"**_

Faster than the eye can blink, a tendril whips out of the shadows of the column directly next to the blue-grey fox, catching him around the middle and lifting him up before he even has a chance to draw his weapons, flinging him towards the wall

"Aconite!" Lilia screams as the Arctic fox slams into the wall with a sickening _thud_ , his body making a crater in the marble, before the tendril catches him around the middle and hurls the semi-conscious male across the room. Without time to prepare his body for the landing, he tumbles end over end until finally hitting the base of a column. Black spots swim before his eyes as the pain of the impacts finally hits him, and by the way his chest hurts, he's sure that he's at least broken a couple of ribs.

Yet this is nothing to pain that that bastard is going to face at the moment.

"Bad move fucker," he wheezes under his breath, smiling in spite of the pain as a trickle of blood comes from the corner of his mouth, but when he tries to roll over onto his side, his grits his teeth in an attempt to ward of the agony the motion brings with it. Breathing hard through his nose, the medic once again tries to force his body into cooperation despite the pain that nearly paralyzes him.

He has to get to Lilia…that idiot has no idea what kind of force he's just unleashed.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, the Inkubi catch the scent of freshly spilled blood and start to go into a frenzy. Squealing and shrieking with delight when the scent seems to be coming from the downed vulpine-creature who they recognize as the one who killed so many of their own, they rise up as a singular mass of flapping wings and sharp fangs before swooping in to deliver the death-blow. First they will rip his soul from his body, poison it with the dark toxin that coats their talons, before shredding and devouring the pieces…before tearing his still-beating heart from his chest so that they can devour that too.

 _ **"Feast upon his flesh, creatures of storm and darkness! Feed to your hearts content!"**_

However, they cannot resist the lure of Lilia's own blood as she slices her forearm with a jagged shard of crystal she managed to take from the crystal hallway, using this cut in order to draw their attention to her instead. Her blood, she knows, smells sweeter to them… driving them into an even deeper feeding madness that she will take advantage of before she strikes the fallen god directly. Smearing her blood along the tip of an arrow, she lifts her bow and fires the bolt into the murder of Inkubi, causing them scatter to avoid the fatal shot before they coalesce back into a mob, their shrieks of hunger turning into ones of homicidal fury as they suddenly dive-bomb the Seedrian archer.

"Lilia! Get out of there!" Tails cries out from inside the protective sphere that Cosmo's gem formed around him, his heart pounding in his chest as she makes no move to lift her bow or even run away from the swarm of storm-demons that are flying towards her at an alarming rate. "Run! They'll kill you!"

But she simply smiles up at the flock descending upon her, closing her eyes the closer and closer they get. She shuts off the sound of their echoing shrieks, the taunts of the fallen god, the sound of Tails yelling at her to run…and simply focuses on the silence inside her head.

 _ **Anger does not control us…it is us that controls our anger.**_

With this sentiment in mind, her smile widens until it can no longer be called that. Instead, when she opens her turquoise eyes to face down the hoard of Inkubi, her smiles has become a savage smirk, and the eager anticipation for battle flickers dangerously in her gaze.

 ** _When there's hell to pay…the devil must take his due._**

To a bystander like Tails, seeing Lilia about to be attacked is synonymous to torture. No matter how many times he tells her to run, she just stands there, with her eyes closed, with a strange smile upon her lips. For some reason, a shiver skitters up through his spine when he sees that look on her face, but concern for her greatly outweighs the feeling of unease, and just as the first of the Inkubi come within inches of her, claws extended with the intent to kill, Tails opens his mouth to warn Lilia…only for the sound to be frozen in his throat.

For no sooner than the first of the claws makes contact with her skin, her gem suddenly blazes to life, sending rippling, iridescent waves of light shooting off in all directions. Tails watches in amazement as Lilia throws her head back and her arms wide, laughing almost joyously when her gem suddenly becomes a swirling vortex in the center of her chest, reminding Tails of the indigo swirls within the portal they had to cross through to get to the temple. The Inkubi's screams of rage quickly become squeals of fright as they begin to be pulled into the kaleidoscopic whirlpool, but no matter how hard they flap their wings and fight, none of them are able to escape the gravitational pull.

When the last of them disappears into the void, it abruptly reverts back to its gem form…though now it is a vastly different color than it was before.

Instead of the silver color it was before, it is now a deep purple, like the color of a bruise.

 _ **"…Well. This is certainly a surprise,"**_ the fallen god says, though now there is a hint of uncertainty in his voice.

And Lilia begins to laugh.

Aconite manages to get to his feet as her giggles echo throughout the room, holding his palm against the side he knows have broken ribs, his hand glowing a light blue as he heals himself as fast as he possibly can. He has to stop Lilia from going too far from what she's planning to do, for if she expends too much of her gem's energy, it could have fatal consequences.

Not even he would be able to heal her from that if it were to happen.

Tails stares at Lilia as uncontrollable giggles spill forth from her lips, confused at what's going on with the Seedrian girl, but then he notices something about the gem's protective sphere. With every laugh, the sphere seems to recoil from the sound, as if it hurts it, the surface rippling like a droplet of water breaking the surface of a pond. He reaches out and gently presses him palm against it, trying to figure out what's going on, when it suddenly shattered under his touch, sending him stumbling to the floor, with Cosmo's gem landing next to him with a _ping_. Tails groans and lifts his head, his mind spinning in circles to see what made the globe break open like that, when he also realizes something about Lilia.

Her colors are changing.

The color leaches its way out of the aubergine gem that sits on her collarbone in every direction, turning the shell-pink of her dress into deep ebony hue, matching the darkening of her own flower atop her now-charcoal grey hair. _What on earth is going on…? How did…?_

When she does stop laughing, she looks directly at the fallen god, tilting her head to one side in a childish manner…before she's a blur of motion, nocking an arrow before her weapon is even lifted and then firing it before she's even taken another breath. The fallen god roars in pain and anger as her projectile finds its mark in one of his six eyes -though now he's down to five- sending blood and fluid streaming from the punctured eye.

Tails' face pales at the sight of the dark being with an arrow sticking out his collapsing eyeball and fights the urge not to throw up as he quickly looks away, but the damage is already done.

 _ **"You little-! I'll kill you for this!"**_ the dark spirit screams as he turns the rest of his eyes upon her, and tendrils of darkness come shooting out from the shadows, hurtling for the black-clad Seedrian girl. Yet she neatly dodges every one of them with a mockingly beatific smile on her lips, and in retaliation she throws her hand out in the direction of their enemy. The ground rumbles beneath them and thorny branches suddenly break up from underneath the marble, entangling his vines with her own while others shoot out of the ground and pierce the fallen god through the side.

It's not a fatal wound, but that's what she had been aiming for.

She laughs and calls up more of her thorns to come and attack the fallen god, like the evil witch straight out of _Sleeping Beauty_ , though Aconite can start to see how using such energy at once is taking a toll on her, noticing the way her hands are starting to shake.

So before she goes any further and ends up in critical condition, Aconite manages to wrap his arms around her, pinning her arms to her side as he leaps back, out of the range of the tendril's reach, to where Tails is crouched on the ground, clutching Cosmo's gem to his chest as he watches Aconite struggle to hold on to Lilia. She fight him, but he manages to restrain her with one arm while he reaches up with the other hand to lay it on her forehead, willing her mind to clear and heal from the emotional usage of the pent up anger and madness that absorbing the Inkubi caused her.

She stiffens in his arms as he attempts to use his healing on her, but after a moment he feels her start to relax…and when she lets out a soft sigh, he knows that she's back in control, ready to channel the emotions in energy rather than letting the emotions control how she uses the energy.

"You good?"

"Yup. Just peachy."

"Lilia…are you sure you're okay?"

"Oh, don't worry Tails, it'll go away on its own. It's just a side effect of drawing the Inkubi into my gem, but I'll be fine."

"I told you not to use that much power at all once. But did you listen to me? No."

 _ **"Will you please just shut up and let me kill you already? This is becoming far more trouble than it's worth, and I'd do so hate to lose my temper when it comes to executions. I might just end up ripping off a limb instead of completely ripping you in half!"**_

She turns to glare at the fat worm, ready to return the comment with something in kind, when she sees a shadow sneaking along the ground out of the corner of her eye… and that it's headed straight for the now-defenseless kitsune!

With a growl, she nocks a arrow in her bow and shoots the tendril back, yelling at Tails to run. Aconite pulls the younger fox to his feet and pushes him in the direction of where there is more open space and fewer shadows, but to their horror, more vines shoot out of the shadows of the columns, combining with each other until it's about the width of a root of a tree, and just a long,

Cursing the fact that this is going to cost her more of her life-energy to conjure these portals, she flings out her hand and a portal instantly appears underneath Tail's feet, and he goes tumbling through it just the vine coming down where he had just been standing.

 _ **"I nearly had him! Curse you, you conniving little BITCH!"**_ the fallen god roars at having lost one his quarry, flinging his shadows at them, but they can see the direction he's going to attack them in, making dodging them easier than one would think. It must have been a long time since this guy had anyone to fight against, because as far as the two of them are concerned, this guy is _slow_.

"Yeah, I've heard that one before!"

As soon as Tails is out of danger, Aconite looks at his darkness-imbued Seedrian partner and flashes her a reckless smile. "Ready to take this bastard down?" he asks her, and in response she laughs, nodding eagerly before the two of them are forced to leap apart when a wildly-writhing vine comes crashing down where they had been standing.

Now the two of them begin to work in tandem with each other, Lilia retreating backwards and firing as many arrows as fast as she is able to make, while the Arctic fox splits his spear into its third form, a pair of trench knives, the golden energy constructs crackling with energy as he works to inflict as much damage as he can to their enemy.

When the fallen god howls with rage and strikes out with his dark vines, but they dodge every single one that he sends their way.

"I have a plan!" Aconite yells over the sound of the spirit bellowing furiously, his blade slashing at a vine that attempts to ensnare his ankle.

"Care to tell me what it is?!" she replies back, a hint of sarcasm in her voice as she fires another arrow.

"No time! Just take out his eyes first!"

"Roger!"

Turning her bow sideways, she materializes three arrows at the same time and nocks all of them in her bowstring, dodging the thrashing vines intent on squashing her flat until she has a clear shot on her target.

Arrow after arrow she fires, each one meeting its mark, and by the time she's done, the fat fallen god is completely blinded, with an arrow sticking out of each punctured eyeball. He roars curses at her that would make even the most ruthless of criminals cower in fear, but she simply rolls her eyes and continues firing her arrows, acting as a decoy for Aconite to go in and start hacking at him.

However, when Aconite gets caught up again and tossed like a rag doll, he manages to twist out of its death-grip before he's sent flying. _Okay, time for a new plan,_ he thinks to himself as he lands on the balls of his feet, his mind swiftly sorting through any sort of strategy that he can use, since the current plan isn't working. But even if he could think of a new plan quickly enough, the bad part of this is that now they're too far apart for a tandem 'divert-and-assault' strategy to work, and after seeing him get flung through the air distracts her enough that her bow dips a little bit, giving one the errantly flailing vines to catch her off guard.

The tendril catches her square in the midsection, but instead of fighting it she allows the vine to sweet her off her feet and send her hurtling backwards, letting her body conform to the movement in order to lessen the impact. As a plausible strategy falls into place, his body is already in motion, for as soon as the tendril strikes her, he is already predicting the trajectory of her flight and forming a countermeasure. He sprints towards the place he knows their paths will intersect and deactivates both of his weapons, jamming them back into the holsters.

And like he predicts, their paths do cross one another, and that is when the two of them make their final stand.

As she flies by him, his hand shoots out in time to grab her forearm tightly, keeping her from flying back too far. He yanks her back towards him and she flows smoothly into the movement, never stumbling or fighting against him as his grip slides down to take encircle her wrist. She is content to let him guide her actions, for when it comes to strategy, he is the best. Lifting the arm that connects her to him, Aconite twirls Lilia in a circle as if they are dancing to a particularly fast-paced song only the two of them can hear, and in response she angles herself towards him, their bodies touching for the briefest of seconds before everything kicks into overdrive.

On the second revolution, her hand shoots out and seizes hold of the saber in the left holster; with a flick of her wrist causes it to begin the shift into its long range weapon. As she does this, Aconite releases his hold on her wrist and leaps back when she completes the revolution, her bowstring singing as she fires the spear from her weapon, as if it were a weapon. In the same instant, his second saber is already in his hand, and while it its is mid-transition, throws it alongside the trajectory of his weapon that she launched.

Just as they planned, one of the magnets within the hilts of the sabers flip, allowing the two pieces to snap together as the energy blades twine together to form the spear point. It flies through the air with the greatest of precision, going straight through the gaps between the tendrils that flair and writhe around the fallen god, searching for their quarry by relying on the sound of them breathing.

…But not even the dark vines can prevent this weapon from finding its mark as it sinks straight into the carotid artery.

The battle is over.

Screaming in fury and desperate defiance, the tendrils begin to hit anything within reach, shattering the columns that hold the ceiling up without restraint. Chunks of marble come collapsing down as the fallen god begins to bleed out, black jets of sticky blood squirting out of the hole in his throat with each pump of his blackened heart.

"Time to go!" Aconite yells over the sound of the room collapsing all around them.

"Yes sir!" Lilia replies loudly, saluting the bluish-grey fox before reaching forward to take his hand, a portal already forming in the floor at the very center of the room. Their eyes upon the exit portal, the two of them tear across the decimated battlefield, their hearts beating hard in their chests as they are forced to keep dodging the pieces of marble that come crashing around them, as well as other tendrils that are blindly striking out.

"Jump!" he howls as one the tendrils come speeding towards them, and she notices that one of the pieces about to fall is going to land directly over the portal, large enough to kill them on impact, crying out at the same time, "Hurry!"

Leaping over the vine rushing headlong towards them, the two of them use its recoil to launch themselves forward just as the slab of marble ceiling begins to fall. Now it becomes a race against gravity as the Seedrian girl and anthropomorphic medic-fox use the last of their strength to get to the portal before the falling slab of stone…

…and manage to leap headlong into the swirling indigo vortex, hands tightly clasped with one another's as they fall…

* * *

"Tails…Tails…oh please wake up! Tails!" a girl calls out, her voice cutting through the darkness that swamps him. As the voice persists, repeating his name over and over, small pinpricks of light begin to permeate the darkness, until at last they create a large gash in the blanket of his subconscious that keeps him prisoner. He wakes with a gasp, shooting up in a sitting position, panting and sweating heavily. _What a nightmare, being trapped in that empty blankness,_ he thinks to himself, lifting a hand to brush his bangs out of his eyes…only to find that his hand is intertwined with someone else's

His head snaps up and his mouth falls open as his gaze alights on Cosmo kneeling beside him, her sapphire eyes shimmering with unshed tears and a smile of relief and joy on her lips. "Oh Tails…," she whispers, and he opens his mouth to speak, to ask her if it's really her, that he's not dreaming again, but she launches herself at him with a sob, her arms wrapping around his neck so tightly that at first he can't breathe, but when she lays her head on his shoulder and begins to weep, her grip loosens.

She repeats his name like a mantra over and over again, and in return he wraps his own arms around her tiny waist, holding her to him as tightly as she is doing to him as tears of happiness fill his own eyes and spill over, making wet tracks in his fur.

 _Finally…_

When their tears finally lessen, enough for them to speak, they pull back slightly, and it then that Tails notices that neither of his other friends are anywhere to be found. "Cosmo…have Lilia and Aconite come back yet?" he asks in a worried voice, and her expression becomes crestfallen.

"No, they haven't," she answers, her tone raw with sadness and regret. "No other rifts followed after the one we passed through." Yet when she feels the waves of grief coming off him as he stares at her, she gently strokes his cheek and tries her best to smile positively. "But I do not think they're dead…I-I can feel that they're still alive. In here." She places a hand over her gem.

"I-I never got to t-thank them," he whispers sadly, reaching out to touch her cheek with a trembling hand. "They helped me f-find you…and bring y-you back…so that I could tell you how much I l-love you Cosmo…"

The Seedrian girl feels the tears spill down her cheeks as she says this, but she can't help but a laugh in relief. "I love you too, Tails," she murmurs tenderly, love for her kitsune welling up in her heart and flooding through her entire body, from the tips of her flower buds to the soles of her feet., "I always have…and I always will."

And then she leans forward and captures his lips with her own.

 _It's time for a new beginning…one that means neither of will ever be apart from the other again._

* * *

As the two of them rejoice in having been reunited with each other, in the middle a particular large path of soft grass, a small, delicate flower grows among the foxtail.

* * *

 _ **Epilogue**_

As they step forward from the portal that delivered them from Mobius, his anthropomorphic fox and her Seedrian disguises fall away like rain on the body of a newly waxed car, revealing two bespectacled teenagers standing in their place, hands still intertwined from the journey through the dimensional rift.

Upon realizing this fact, the girl immediately drops his hand and smoothes back the bangs that had fallen into her eyes in a gesture of nonchalance, though her cheeks are still a bit flushed. She blames it on the inter-dimensional rift -traveling through such portals always gives her more a rosy flush. The boy, for his part, simply looks away, pretending not to see the girl take the tiniest of steps away from him after noticing they are far too close in each other's proximities to be comfortable.

Yes, they are friends, but he is still a young man and she is a young lady. There must be boundaries.

In the wake of this, however, comes a silence between the two, each unsure of what to say to the other. Good job? Thank you? See you later? Glad we didn't die?

And they had thought that the mission to reunite Tails and Cosmo would be hard. Boy were _they_ was much harder.

In the end, it is the girl who speaks up first, angling her body to face the other head-on while forcing herself to make eye-contact with him, mindlessly cursing the fact that she's an introvert and not an extrovert. If she were the latter, things probably wouldn't be so fraught with awkwardness, but as it is, she's going to have to make due. "Thank you for coming with me," she says, the corners of her lips turning up a smile as she looks up at him, "I know I probably took a chunk of your training out of your schedule, but I couldn't think of anyone else who would be able to help me." She chuckles to herself and her smile grows a bit wider and less self-conscious. "After all, you know just as much about those two as I do. So I really appreciate you going with me to help clear that errant timeline."

"No problem," he answers humbly, the corners of his mouth quirking up in a subtle smile. "I didn't mind at all. It was very…eventful."

That pulls a bout of laughter from the girl, and she covers her mouth to keep her laughter in. "You mean the fact that we were nearly ripped to shreds by the storm-inkubi?" she retorts in a half-sarcastic, half-playful manner, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I forgot I created them to be a little aggressive."

He lifts his brows at that and shakes his head in slight disbelief. "A _little_ aggressive?" he prods, unconvinced by her description of the monsters she unleashed upon them.

"Okay fine, maybe a _lot_ aggressive, Major Nitpicker," she retorts, without any real bite to her words, struggling to hold in the laughter that's bubbling inside her, especially when this perplexed and slightly offended expression crosses over his face.

"…Did you just call me _Major Nitpicker?"_ he asks, as if he can't believe that she actually said it and yet knowing that she in fact did. "Really?"

And that's it. She's a goner.

Bursting into full, gut-busting laughter, the girl turns away and covers her mouth as the urge to laugh overpowers her self-control in one fell swoop. He stares at her in wonder at how hard she's laughing -was it really that funny to her?- but after watching her fall into hysterics, he finds that he can't help it but chuckle too. All right, it was pretty funny for a pun, he'd have to give her that.

The two of them laugh like this for a good couple of minutes, feeding off each other's chuckles, but once they subside, the girl straightens up and tilts her head up to look at the blue sky arcing over their heads, stretching off into the horizons of forever in every direction. "Anyways, I'm really grateful," she says in a more muted, quiet tone of voice, her eyes softening as she gazes up at the azure firmament, her thoughts trailing back to the couple the two of them had crossed dimensions to bring together. "Without you, I wouldn't have imagined up a way to get the two of them back together…nor pushed myself to actually break the laws of inter-dimensional travel among the timelines and meddle in their fates." She turns and smiles at him lightly. "It was fun."

"Yes it was," he agrees with her, his gaze caught on a large plane flying hundreds of miles over their head, probably making its way from the airport to whatever destination it was designated. "Especially the weapons," he remarks under his breath wistfully, and she shoots him a little side glance before shaking her head slightly.

"I know," she agrees with him mildly, a little bit of longing her own voice as well. "I'm going to miss my _yumi_. And that dress…it was so beautiful."

Once again, the two of them lapse into silent, but unlike before, it is a more comfortable silence, like one between friends rather than strangers. The stand like this for a while, quiet and contemplative, each remembering things about the mission that mean something to them, some radically different while others exactly the same. The way they snuck into the Inkubi's fortress was especially memorable, or the ensuing flight upon being discovered by the storm-creatures, as well as the way the two of them were forced to fight back to back, her Fleur-de-lis Longbow coupled with his Caduceus Spear to carve a path through the mob of Inkubi to get back to the portal she writ into existence.

However, upon glancing at his watch and realizing that it's almost time for leave, he turns to the girl beside him. "I'm sorry, I have to go," he apologizes, but she waves off his apology nonchalantly.

"No, it's fine, we barely made it under the wire as it is," she says with a chuckle that sounds forced, even to her own ears, but then her smile falters and she shifts from foot to foot uncomfortably. "Well…I guess this is it then."

"Yeah."

Another bout of silence falls over them, but she quickly puts a stop to it, forcing her voice to be upbeat and cheery. "Well, let me give you one last hug before you go. I owe you that much at least."

"You mean more than you already owe me after we nearly go eaten?"

"Oh shush or you can just forget about the hug."

He laughs and the two friends embrace for what seems like the last time in a very long time. The future is uncertain and neither of them knows when they'll be able to see each other again, so she hugs him harder, just in case. When they step out of each other's embraces, she's sure that her cheeks are burning and she can feel the pinpricks of tears behind her eyes, but she swears to herself that she will be nothing but happy for him. This is his dream, and as his friend, she must do everything she can to help him succeed.

"Good luck to you," she tells him sincerely, "I wish you nothing but the best. I know you're going to do great out there."

"Thanks."

Just then, the sound of someone calling his name gets both of their attention, and she knows the moment is now. "I guess that's my cue to go, I suppose," she tells him, and she hates the slight quaver in her voice. "Goodbye."

"Bye," he replies, and at the same time they both turn away and begin to walk in different directions: he back to where his family is waiting for him, and she to her own little home. However, she stops and before she can even think to change her mind, turns back and catches up to him. He turns in surprise, but she quickly rises up on tippy toes and kisses his softly on the cheek.

"For good luck, soldier boy," she mutters before her nerve leaves her and she quickly turns back around and starts speed walking in the opposite direction. It isn't the first time she's done something stupid, and it probably won't be her last, but she knows that she wouldn't take it back.

She keeps her gaze focuses on the sight of her feet as she walks away, but slowly, her footsteps slow until she's at a standstill on the sidewalk. With a soft sigh of exasperation with herself, she turns around stares at his retreating back, growing smaller and smaller by the moment, sending a silent prayer up to God that he'd be safe on the journey and when he landed…but most importantly, that he be happy.

Again she turns away, this time telling herself that if she does, she going to loose it and start to cry -something no one wants to see, she's sure- and instead pulls her mp3 from her pocket and slips the buds into her ears, flipping through the songs as she walks…only for her to stop and smile at the song that is playing in her ears.

Taking it as a good sign, she smiles softly and begins to sing along under her breath.

 _"Just wait! Though wide he may roam_

 _Always, a hero comes home_

 _He goes where no one has gone_

 _But always, a hero comes home..."_

* * *

 **~Fin.~**

* * *

 ** Author's Notes and Comments Section: **

***(A/N: Look up Vampire Princess Miyu if you don't can't picture her hairstyle. It's kind of similar to hers.)**

 **The songs I used in this chapter and the one are as followss:**

 **Words by Skylar Grey**

 **Gently As She Goes by Karliene**

 **A Hero Comes Home from the Beowulf Soundtrack**

 **(A/N2: By the way. the "/" marks in the dialouge for this chapter and the pervious one denote breaks in the song lyrics, so that it makes it easier to read)**

* * *

 **Yay, my first completed fanfic! I'm so proud! Just remember readers, reviews are love, so please just a little bit of time and tell you what you thought about my story. Thank you!**

 **-Love, BlackRoseEden28**


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